Republic of the Philippines
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Philippine Center for Postharvest
Development and Mechanization
CLSU Compound, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija

NEWS STORIES

Radyo Eskwela exceeds target over 8,762 FCA member-enrollees
by Micky Teresa V. Cabuloy (November 7, 2022)
The Radyo Eskwela: Angat Ani sa Tamang Makinarya of the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) recorded 8,762 RCEF Mechanization farmers’ cooperative and associations (FCAs) members enrolled nationwide, surpassing its target of 7,500 FCA members per season.

The highest registry was recorded in Luzon with 6,135 FCA members, followed by Mindanao with 1,489members and Visayas with 1,1,38 registered.

Radyo Eskwela Season 3’s new set of ka-eskwela, promised to brace the 30-minute educational program for three months. The program was launched last November 9, 2022 - live streamed at Radyo Eskwela PH Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/RadyoEskwelaPH) and YouTube Channel (https://youtube.com/@RadyoEskwelaPH) simultaneously aired in 27 AM stations and six FM stations of Radio Mindanao Network (RMN).

During the launch, DA representative the Assistant Secretary for Consumers Affairs, Kristine Evangelista acknowledged PHilMech and RMN’s effort in promoting modernization and mechanization among the farmers.

Assistant Secretary Evangelista, also mentioned that promoting these aspects in agriculture is one of the priorities of the government which is the timely scope of the whole topics range of Radyo Eskwela- farm mechanization principles and machinery in mechanized farming.

There are six modules with three to four lessons per module that will be aired in five regional languages such as Tagalog, Hiligaynon, Cebuano, and Iloco with RMN anchors and PHilMech technical experts in the field.

Aside from modules, the Text Quiz was one of the most awaited part per episode of Radyo Eskwela. This portion gives a chance to the 15 ka-eskwela to win a P100 load if they got the correct answer to the featured question on the episode.

For this season of ka-eskwela, 8,322 members are from 668 FCAs of 2021 validated FCAs, 7 FCAs with 282 members from PHilMech’s 50 FCA Models, and 19 FCAs with 282 FCA members in 2020 validated FCAs who were not able to enroll at the previous season of the program. The ka-eskwela farmers are composed of 5,812 males and 2,950 females.

The Radyo Eskwela: Angat Ani Sa Tamang Makinarya first season started last March 13, 2021. It catered to 11,682 farmer-beneficiaries which produced 9,097 graduates. During its second season, 14, 783 farmers enrolled and 12,064 farmers graduated.

Radyo Eskwela aims to effectively reach out to FCAs, using the diverse communication channels like television-radio and social media each episode aired every Wednesday and Saturday from 5:00 AM to 6:00 AM.