Farmers’ infotech center set up in Sulu town

Expect the agriculture sector of Basilan to perk up some more in the immediate future.

The reason: a Farmers’ Information and Technology Services (FITS) center has been set up in the island-province.

Launched last March 14, the FITS center is housed at the Sta. Clara Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Integrated Development Cooperative Training Center in Sta. Clara, Lamitan town.

The FITS center is a one-stop information shop or service facility that aims to improve people’s access to vital information.

It is a program of the Los Baños-based Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCARRD).

Dr. Patricio Faylon, PCARRD executive director, said FITS is a component of Technology Gabay, the council’s banner program for technology transfer and promotion in the agriculture, forestry and natural resources sectors.

Since the FITS program was launched in 1997, 178 such centers have been set up in strategic places in the country, said Dr. Bessie Burgos, director of PCARRD’s Technology Outreach Program Division (TOPD).

The FITS center in Basilan is the latest information and technology services center to be established by PCARRD, Burgos said.

During the center’s launch, Lamitan Vice Mayor Jimmy Andong assured the members of the Sta. Clara Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Integrated Development Cooperative of the municipal government’s assistance to ensure the project’s success.

Others present during the launching ceremony were Dr. Eduardo Holoyohoy, vice chairman of the Regional Research and Development Coordinating Council of the Western Mindanao Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development Consortium; Subwait Ismael, provincial agrarian reform officer; and Dr. Arturo Argañosa, PCARRD-TOPD assistant director.

The cooperative, which has 1,321 members, runs a plantation in Sta. Clara. Its area formerly belonged to the University of the Philippines (UP) Land Grant and transferred to the agrarian reform beneficiaries in 1988.

Priority crops grown in the area are rubber and coconut. Coconut trees are usually intercropped with coffee, banana, cacao and fruit trees.