The Department of Agriculture commended the achievements attained by the Better Rice Initiative Asia-Foresting Agriculture and Rice Marketing by improved Education and Rural advisory Services or BRIA-FARMERS in bridging the gaps between the public and the private sectors.

During the culmination of BRIA-FARMERS, Agriculture Undersecretary Ariel Cayanan praised the men and women behind the strategy, which has established farm management thru training modules.

“We have institutionalized learning by creating modules. With this technique, we multiply the success. Change is continuous so as learning,” Cayanan said.

BRIA is a four-year multi-sector project that started in 2013 and was piloted into 13 municipalities and 13 provinces in Aurora province, Southern Leyte, and Iloilo.

Along with DA, other implementing partners of the program are the Agricultural Training Institute, Philippine Rice Research Institute, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), Bayer, and Yara Fertilizer Philippines Incorporated in special partnership with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Peter Hauschnik, Officer-in-Charge for GIZ expressed his satisfaction on the completion and result of the program.

“Building bridges between the government, private sectors, and farmers has been our focus as well as creating new ways of doing things. We wish a sustainable development through BRIA.” Hauschnik said.

With the training modules in place, Cayanan said it will be used as training tools to enable sustainable learning experience.

“I order these modules to be out in the field and used extensively. These modules will not sit in our office shelves and gather dust,” Cayanan said. ### (Carlos Cezar Baldosa/DA-AFID)