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PINOY RICE

KNOWLEDGE BANK
Case Study Review of Projects and Experiences in
Non-Formal Education: Exploring the EDCOM
Experiences

Kei Asagi
Joshua Mondejar
Adrian Jerome Pabale

DEVC 40: FUNDAMENTALS OF EDUCATIONAL


COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY
AB-1R

Prof. Rhodora Ramonette DC. Custodio

1 March 2017
O verview of the Project
The Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank, alternatively addressed as PINOY RKB,
is an internet based portal under the management of the Philippine Rice
Research Institute, a particular part of the Department of Agriculture which
focuses on developing high-yielding and cost-reducing technologies so
farmers can produce enough rice for all Filipinos(PhilRice, 2017). With this
PhilRices aim, the Pinoy RKB is bound to comply with it, thus giving the
farmers and extension workers a more convenient way of acquiring
information relevant to rice, farming and the like.

A glimpse on its history, the Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank had its birth
coincided on the Silver Anniversary of the Philippine Rice Research Institute,
5th of November, 2010 with the spearheading of the Open Academy for
Philippine Agriculture (OPAPA). From that day, the Pinoy RKB serves as a
guide book as described in the study of Charisma Love B. Gado, a part of
the Development Communication Division of the institute (Official Gazette,
2010). At present, the Pinoy RKB is accessible on their current web address,
www.pinoyrice.com .

oals of the Project and Its


Stakeholders
Upon its start in 2010, the Pinoy RKB was mandated to bind on the
goals of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice). As stated on the
press release prepared by the Department of Agriculture (and published in
the Official Gazette, 2010), PinoyRice aims to improve and hasten the
sharing of location-specific rice-based technologies and practices and
enhance rice specialists capability in providing technical support in the
field.

In addition to this main goal, Pinoy RKB is supposed to provide relative


information about planting rice, which came directly from the scientists of
the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Among those are Nutrient
Manager, Rice Doctor, and Provincial Quick Guides.

Lastly, with the advent of Pinoy RKB, farmers and agricultural


extension workers can directly collaborate and converse with the competent
personnel and experts of PhilRice, which in effect, gives these people an

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opportunity to gain a more thorough understanding, aside from the reading
materials, applications, slide presentations, video demonstrations and useful
images provided by the website.

The Pinoy RKB can be named as a tool established by the Development


Communication Division of PhilRice that makes a bridge in between the
PhilRice and IRRI experts and scientists and the farmers, agricultural
specialists, extension workers, local government units (LGU) and non-
governmental organizations (NGO), moving towards the need to sustain and
improve the rice yield of the country.

ccomplishments of Pinoy RKB


The establishment of the Pinoy RKB in 2010 is nonetheless a great
achievement for the Development Communication Division of the PhilRice.
With Pinoy RKB, as discussed earlier, the gap existing in between the
stakeholders was able to be filled. Focusing on the accomplishment of the
Pinoy RKB itself, according to December 2011 Website Analytics Report, the
website reached an average monthly number of visits of 4,647 where 60% of
it was new to the site (Highlights of R&D Accomplishments & Performance,
2011). This phenomenon implies that there is an existing growing interest in
easily accessible information touching the field of agriculture, particularly
rice cultivation. Furthermore, data from the report showed that there is a
remarkable increase of viewers during the month of July, which marks the
beginning of the wet season planting. Hence, it is undoubtedly true that all
the reading materials and all other services offered by the website are,
indeed, applicable and highly useful. The statistics given in 2011 remarkably
increased as stated in the Milestones 2014-2015, where in 2014, the hits of
the site grew into an estimated count of 70,000 and 50, 000 there were
unique visitors.

In addition to being continuously patronized by many, the Pinoy RKB


developed into supporting different language settings, in the site itself and
on its online publications. This staged the website into a larger arena since
the Philippines cradles a lot of plantations all over its islands and almost
every region of it holds its own native language, aside from Filipino. Given
this, more in the agricultural sectors were able to understand information
disseminated in the website more thoroughly.

Among other achievements of the Pinoy RKB were to establish an


offline version of the site. This gives way to some places of the country that
has trouble in internet connection to access continuously the information
offered by the site online, thus continuing to work the goal of the site. On the

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other hand, to reach several places where electric supply is neglected, Pinoy
RKB provides printable reading materials in portable document format (PDF)
which can be easily printed by the agricultural extension workers and
distribute it to those far flung places.

E ducational Communication at
Work
Main users of the Pinoy RKB are farmers. It is also available to
extension workers, students, and other professionals. It is crucial that the
media/medium used accommodates the users that the site is available too.
Educational communication is a big factor considering how Pinoy RKB works.
It supplies users with information that is helpful in increasing their profit.
Some of these are PDF files, presentations, video, etc. Everything in the site
is downloadable. It is user-friendly and easy to navigate so that farmers,
being the main user of the said site, will not have a hard time searching for
their desired component to help them with their farming activities. In
addition, the site offers online chatting for those who are lost and still
confused in going about the page. Interaction is very important for learning
to be successful. Giving them presentations, videos, etc. will be inadequate
in supplying information to target users, what they need is communication
with professionals that can advise them in their problems if they still need
guidance despite the given materials that are downloadable online.

In the Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank site, development communication


practitioners are the ones tasked in the overview of the page. They are
responsible for navigation through the site and making it user-friendly.
Various topics should be properly categorized making it easy for users to

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download it any time. Exhibit dates are posted online for those who are
interested in hands-on learning brought by different agencies that are in line
with the Department of Agriculture.

Development communication practitioners in PhilRice are assessing


how young students can be infomediaries. Infomediaries are created by the
Philippine Rice Research Institute to properly accommodate farmers in rice-
farming communities by creating communication pathways in agricultural
extension. These people facilitate access of information. This is an attempt
from PhilRice to broaden communication pathways in rice-farming
communities. Some of the projects are exhibits and seminars that promote
visibility, personal interaction, establishing credibility. This is to address the
deficiency brought by the site in terms of communication.

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