The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) here is offering new scholarship grants on modern rice farming, meant to help boost farmers’ income.

In an interview Friday, TESDA provincial director Socorro Galanto cited the need for farmers to be trained on the basics of rice machinery operation after they received numerous agri-machinery units from the government.

“The agriculture sector is one of the priority sectors of TESDA. So, we will be offering different agriculture-related training courses this year,” she said, noting that 25 slots will be made available per batch of training.

The scholarship grants are under the Program on Accelerating Farm School Establishment (PAFSE) and Rice Extension Services Program (RESP).

PAFSE is being implemented as part of TESDA’s enterprise-based training to promote the establishment of farm schools, and the use of a “farmer to farmer, learning by doing” methodology.

The RESP, on the other hand, is being implemented under the Republic Act 11203, or the Rice Liberalization Act, signed in 2019.

Under the RESP, Galanto said they will offer short-term courses such as rice machinery operation, drying and milling plant servicing NC III, agro-entrepreneurship NC II, pest and nutrients management, as well as digital agriculture course for farmers who are interested in creating marketing content and product demonstration using the internet, social media or other media platforms.

TESDA continues to develop more training courses for agriculture and post-harvest training programs to improve and expand its services and help achieve food self-sufficiency in the country. (PNA)