Harvest Time
Farmers call center works wonders
By Sosimo Ma. Pablico
Rice farmers in distress or in need of information may very well send a text message to the Farmers Call Center of the PhilRice-led Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture.
With a text message worth 1.00, you would surely find out that the Farmers Call Center works wonders.
Take the case of Remy Prieto of Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija. She was able to buy a drumseeder P3,600. that PhilRice engineers delivered to her within a week. She sent a text message to the Farmers’ Call Center expressing her interest to buy a drumseeder. The Farmers Call Center in turn coordinated with the PhilRice Rice Engineering Mechanization Division.
Similarly, Rodel Ortiz of Dipaculao, Aurora solved his problem on stunted rice plants through a text message to his brother-in-law, Leodegario Tiglao of Sta. Ana, Pampanga that the latter relayed to the Farmers Call Center.
Much to Ortiz’s surprise, PhilRice experts were in his farm the next day after sending the text message to Tiglao, who earlier learned of the Farmers Call Center in a basic ICT course of the Open Academy at the Pampanga Agricultural College, which is headed by Dr. Zosimo M. Battad.
The Farmers’ Call Center operator referred his problem to PhilRice crop protection expert Dr. Truong Hoai Xuan, who incidentally was already in Aurora at that time with Dr. Rolando Cruz and Dr. Manuel Regalado, soils and agricultural engineering experts, respectively. Thus, they were able to diagnose the problem immediately.
Ortiz was still able to harvest 60 bags a hectare even as his crop was already in the hard dough stage when the experts visited him. “Without PhilRice’s quick response, most likely we would not have any harvest at all,” Ortiz said.
The Farmers’ Call Center is one of the services of the Open Academy. It aims to link farmers with experts through SMS (short messaging service), commonly known as “text messaging”.
Lesson No. 1: Rice farmers should not hesitate to text the Farmers Call Center about problems on their crop as soon as these are observed. SMART subscribers should text PALAY and send to 7007423. For instance, if the farmer’s problem is related to fertilizer, he should write on his cellphone PALAY space ABONO space QUESTION and then send to 7007423. You may send messages to +639209111398.
If you text PALAY and send to 7007423, you will receive a list of keywords like ABONO, MAKINA, GULAY, INFORICE, ETC. For a complete list of keywords, visit the Pinoy Farmers Internet by typing www.openacademy.ph on the space bar of the internet browser.
Technical experts will respond to your question within 24 hours.
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