Agriculture Secretary William Dar and Corteva Agriscience Country Lead Arun Mittal led the inauguration of the first of 80 educational farms (EduFarms) to be established in key municipalities in the Philippines on Feb. 25, 2020, in Talavera, Nueva Ecija.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) and multinational company Corteva Agriscience entered into a partnership agreement in October 2019 to set up farming academies that will cover 40 municipalities with a total of 50,000 hectares for rice and corn production.

“Mas mabilis ang pag-angat ng mga magsasaka (Farmers would level up more quickly) through partnerships,” Secretary Dar said.

He commended the Corteva Agriscience for its initiative and urged the farmer cooperatives and local government units (LGUs) to make the most from their partnership with the national government and the private sector.

Guided by the twin goals of increasing farmers’ productivity and profitability, the DA and Corteva Agriscience will provide farmers with season-long field and classroom training sessions and promote high-quality seeds, good agricultural practices, and modern farming technologies.

“Through the EduFarm project, we are sharing our knowledge of agricultural best practices and products in order to raise crop productivity and improve farmer income,” Mittal said.

Over 200 farmers, LGU representatives, and other stakeholders attended the inauguration of the Nueva Ecija Rice EduFarm in Barangay Homestead in Talavera wherein they had an up-close project experience through field tour to growing plots and training shed. ### (Gumamela Celes Bejarin, DA-AFID)