by Charissa Luci-Atienza
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has provided more than P1.45 million worth of assistance to farmers associations in Negros Occidental under its Community Empowerment thru Science and Technology (CEST) program.
DOST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña said the DOST Region-VI, in partnership with the co-implementing agency, Ecological and Agricultural (EcoAgri) Development Foundation Inc. launched a community project to aid sustainable farming in Barangay Payauan in the municipality of Candoni in Negros Occidental.
He said DOST-VI and EcoAgri turned over project equipment worth more than P1.45 million to the farming community.
“The EcoAgri and DOST-VI provided a shredder and vermitea equipment to three organized farmers associations of the community” he said in a report.
The project beneficiaries are Alunoy-Payauan Irrigators Association (APIA), Payauan Farmers Association (PAFA), and Tablas Sitau Small Water Impounding System Association (TABSI-SWISA).
“Organic farming technology will also be taught to the members of the associations,” de la Peña said.
“The community was also provided with a rainwater harvesting system in response to their challenge of limited access to water for various utilization,” he added.
During the event, the DOST chief said the symbolic turnover of the computer units equipped with Science and Technology Academic and Research-Based Openly Operated Kiosks or STARBOOKS to rural barangay schools was also held.
STARBOOKS is the country’s first science and technology (S&T) digital library in a box. It contains thousands of digitized science and technology resources in various formats (text and video/audio) placed in specially designed “pods” set in a user-friendly interface.
The recipients of the computer units with STARBOOKS are Caningay National High School (CNHS) – Payauan Extension and Barangay Payauan Elementary School.
“As the first Philippine Science Digital Library that can be accessed without internet connection, STARBOOKS will be an essential system to the students and even for the residents in advancing their knowledge and expanding their resources for research and development,” de la Peña said.
Source: https://mb.com.ph/2021/06/27/dost-extends-p1-4m-to-fund-sustainable-farming-project-in-candoni-negros-occidental/
