KORONADAL CITY—The Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) – Department of Agriculture (DA) – Regional Field Office XII (RFO XII) conducted a training on geotagging and mobile-based monitoring application to fifty (50) personnel of the Regional Program Management Support Office (RPMSO) and four (4) more from the Provincial Program Management Support Office (PPMSO) held at the Viajera Dine and Cafe, Hotel de Viajera, Morales, Koronadal City on March 26 to 28, 2018. They were all welcomed by DA-RFO XII Regional Executive Director (RED) Milagros Casis.
Before the activity began, DA-RFO XII SAAD Focal Person Ms. Cecilia A. Parcon distributed smartphones to concerned SAAD staff, especially the Area Coordinators (ACs), and Information Technologist (ITs), in Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, and North Cotabato.
The resource person, SAAD-National Program Management Office (NPMO)’s IT Cluster Head, Mr. Marvin Segovia, discussed about beneficiary profiling concerns and formally introduced the Open Data Kit (ODK) to the training participants. The kit serves as a handy tool in the farmers’ profiling stage wherein vital information about beneficiaries such as the project they are involved with, their organization, commodity details, etc. are stored and easily accessed.
Planning Officer I, as well a Geo-mapping and Governance Unit (GGU) Master, Mr. James P. Opre, lectured the participants on Applied Geotagging Tools (AGTs) and its uses. He also related the topic with the history of technology and highlighted its importance in monitoring community livelihood/enterprise.
The learnings gathered from the technical training shall be useful in the geo-tagging and profiling of SAAD beneficiaries and interventions. ###
Writer: Jemiema Arro, SAAD PR & Communications Officer
