The provincial government of Benguet launched Tuesday the Science and Technology Innovation (STI) Plan, which will serve as its guide to make the highly agricultural province a haven of sustainable community.

“We have identified problems like soil acidity that is affecting the production and in the process of adopting the STI plan, we have also identified some measures that will address the issues,” provincial board member Joel Tingbaoen said in a press conference here for the launch of the STI plan and the capacity development.

He said Benguet is the first to approve an STI plan in the region, making it a mirror for the others to follow.

“This is a continuing plan. We can revise, adjust depending on the needs of the province but we are proud to be the first to have it in the region. Everybody is looking at us on how we will implement,” said Tingbaoen, the chair of the provincial legislative body’s committee on Science, Technology and Cooperative.

Dr. Shiela Marie Singa-Claver, provincial director of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Benguet said: “The vision of the STI- Benguet is to be a haven of sustainable communities.”

“Benguet’s source of income is farming and mining. In farming, we have identified precision agriculture as well as use of smart agriculture technologies as possible solution to the production problem,” she said.

She said DOST has started incorporating projects that will improve the capacity of the farmers and eventually address the growing issues to attain a more sustainable agriculture.

Aside from logistics, farmers are provided with various capacity building training to increase their know-how on technologies that will improve their livelihood through agriculture, and make the industry sustainable.

“We are not zero on this. Farmers are adapting to the technologies and we provide capacity building,” she said.

Dr. Nancy Bantog, DOST-Cordillera Administrative Region director, said STI is driving the economy and improving lives.

“We use green technologies for farming. We apply circular economy to protect the environment, which has been known to affect our agriculture. Through STI, we can achieve sustainability of the communities and also become resilient to disasters,” she said.

“Our current administration has identified the use of science and technology in improving people’s lives and DOST continues to come up with programs, projects and activities geared towards sustainability through sci-tech,” she added. (PNA)