The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) and the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) Philippines conducted a social media training for research and development practitioners at the Council’s headquarters recently.
The training was facilitated by YPARD Country Representative Jim Leandro P. Cano and YPARD member Joseph Carl Dakila I. Olfindo.
Cano and Olfindo shared their learnings from the social media training linked to the High Level Policy Dialogue on Investment in Agricultural Research for Sustainable Development in the Asia-Pacific Region, which they attended in Bangkok, Thailand, together with DOST-PCAARRD Acting Executive Director Reynaldo V. Ebora.
More than 30 writers and social media administrators of the Council, YPARD Philippines, and the College of Public Affairs of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB-CPAf) participated in the two-day training.
The training was held to empower and equip participants with the tools and knowledge on how to leverage social media to promote agriculture and aquatic technologies and information as well as to connect with professionals from the scientific community.
The training is expected to help in drumming up the upcoming SIPAG FIESTA, which will be held from March 2 to 4, 2016 and other future DOST-PCAARRD events.
Participants were informed of the different social media and productivity tools online, with focus on Twitter and blogging. A live tweeting activity was held for the participants to get a feel of how it is done real time.
The event hashtag, #SIPAGFIESTA, which was used during the activity, will also be used during the SIPAG FIESTA coverage for participants’ live tweet. Blog entries of the participants, as a training output, will also be published in http://sipagfiesta.blogspot.com, the event’s official blog site.
SIPAG reflects the vision and direction of S&T as laid down in the Council’s Strategic Industry S&T Program for Agri-Aqua Growth (SIPAG). It also embodies the Council’s commitment to Outcome One of DOST-PCAARRD in a bid to ensure that the fruits of R&D activities for the said sectors will be a blessing for every Juan, in keeping with the President’s social contract.
Outcome One, the foremost of DOST’s eight major Outcomes, seeks to provide the agri-aqua sectors with science-based know-how and tools that will enable the said sectors to raise productivity to world-class standards.
PCAARRD’s Farms and Industry Encounters through the Science and Technology Agenda or FIESTA, one of the Council’s technology diffusion strategies, typifies a fiesta atmosphere created to enhance agri-aqua technology transfer and commercialization.
SIPAG FIESTA will feature exhibits, techno forum, techno demo, and other ancillary activities to showcase the best R&D outputs of the Council and its partners. Most importantly it shall serve as a venue for market matching and commercialization of S&T-based technologies and products.