The Department of Agriculture (DA) bestowed the 2024-2025 National Winner of the DA Search for Outstanding Rural Women (SORW) to organic and climate-resilient agriculture practitioner Sonia Padilla of San Miguel, Catanduanes during the culmination of this year’s National Women’s Month celebration (NWMC) on March 28, 2025.
Committing to be an instrument of agricultural development in the Philippines, the newly hailed SORW National Winner expressed her desire to also be an icon of empowerment and success, most especially for fellow Filipinas in vulnerable and underprivileged sectors.
Launched in 2003, the Search honors exemplary women in the agriculture sector who hail from the rural areas. It also documents their inspiring journeys, highlighting the rural women’s painstaking efforts to achieve success not only in their respective agricultural ventures but also in empowering fellow women and communities.
The SORW 2024-2025 also recognized the following outstanding rural women: Dauphine Alviar of Cagayan, Region II – First Runner-up; Wilma Alvester of Kalinga, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) – Second Runner-up; Veberly Uyaan of La Union, Region I – Third Runner-up; and Ma. Ninfa Desiree Segovia of Aklan, Region VI – Fourth Runner-up. ### (Text by Krystelle Ymari A. Vergara; Photos by Ardy M. Tompong, DA-AFID)
