Use and acceptance of a Rice-E Calendar among farmers and extension workers
2013
Asis, O.R.M. | Sabado, J.C. | Asis, C.A.Jr.
Data from the PhilRice [Philippine Rice Research Inst. Maligaya, City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, Philippines] Farmers' Text Center Show that extension workers and farmers frequently ask questions about characteristics of varieties (agronomic, resistance to pests and diseases, grain quality) and appropriate dates or time of doing farm activities from land preparation until harvesting. Thus it is important to develop a farmer-friendly computer-aided decision support tool that can provide information about rice variety and generate a cropping calendar containing important rice cropping activities. The authors developed a database of rice varieties with interface to generate rice cropping calendar using the Visual Basic computer programming language. Finally, the authors developed the Rice E-Calendar for direct seeding featuring a printable calendar of the crop management activities in rice production from sowing to harvesting and a database on the characteristics of Philippine Seed Board and National Seed Industry Council-approved varieties. The E-Calendar was shown to farmers and extension workers in Agusan del Norte [Philippines]. Majority of the respondents said that the program is extremely useful and extremely user-friendly. Moreover, most of the extension workers said that the program will be very useful in their seed dispersal program as it can automatically indicate the date for fertilizer application and harvesting. It can also help farmers adjust planting dates as a mitigation and adaptation strategy against the effect of climate change.
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