When Filipino farmers start using the data available in the interactive National Color-Coded Agriculture Guide Map (NACCAG), they will have to thank a young Subanen computer whiz kid from Malangas, Zamboanga Sibugay who literally burned his fingers in the computer to design the program.
Rollie Osayan, a job order employee of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) assigned with the Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP), was tapped by the officials of the Systems-Wide Climate Change Office (SWCCO) which was handling the Adaptation and Mitigation Initiatives in Agriculture (AMIA) and the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) to do the job sometime in December last year.
At the time, I was already losing my patience over the slow progress in the preparation of the Color-Coded Agriculture Guide Map which I promised to President Rody Duterte would be ready within six months of his Presidency.
AMIA and BSWM actually completed their data as early as December last year but the information it contained was only available in hard copy and was not interactive.
I wanted an interactive website where the searchers could just type the name of their barangay, town or province and they could access the information they need to improve their farming.
Alice Ilaga, Director of the Systems-Wide Climate Change Office (SWCCO), asked for two more months to prepare the program saying that it would require in-putting almost two million data into the computer.
That was when Ilaga asked me if her office could “borrow” a computer whiz kid working with PRDP to help them prepare the program.
Osayan, who was a working student from high school to college, finished a computer course in Zamboanga City’s Western Mindanao State University (WMSU).
Asssisted by Dr. Esteban Godilano, the acknowledged father of the GIS mapping in the Philippines and using the ArcGIS and ArcVIEW software, Osayan was able to program the NACCAG website.
While in college, Osayan joined several external studies unit competition in programming contests winning second and third places before becoming a Champion in Web Programming.
Osayan’s father is a Subanen farmer who works as a tenant in somebody else’s land and also does part-time job as a fishpond worker.
“He is also a “pilot”,” Osayan jokingly described his father’s other income earning job which is climbing tall coconut trees to gather coconut toddy or “tuba.”
In the provinces, toddy gatherers are also called “pilots” because they soar high climbing tall coconut trees.
Before joining the PRDP, Osayan worked with a private IT company which further honed his computer skills.
When the NACCAG interactive map was presented to me by Ilaga last Monday, it was Osayan who demonstrated how easily it could be used by farmers.
The farmers could just type the name of their Region, click the province and the town and go down to the barangay level to determine what crops could be planted based on soil suitability and other factors.
By clicking Hazards and Risks, the farmer will also be guided on what to watch out for in his farm.
Additional information on soil analysis down to the village level, water resource availability including the depth of the water table in all areas in the country will also be available.
Weather forecasts, including impending storms and typhoons, will also be available by clicking the link which would lead to the website of PAGASA.
“My computer was so hot during the processing of data, you could literally cook an egg,” he told me when he presented his finished product last Monday.
As a reward, he asked me if he could pose for a photo with me which he said he will show to his parents, especially his father, who could barely read and write.
Osayan will be rewarded with more than just a picture with the Secretary of Agriculture and Fisheries.
I will actually be looking for an item in the plantilla of the DAF for him so that he will be promoted from just being a Job Order employee to a highly-paid government official.
Also, I will introduce him to President Duterte on March 7, when the website of the NACCAG will be officially launched in grand ceremonies in the Heroes Hall of Malacañang.
I am sure President Duterte will be extremely pleased that his administration now has finally opened the doors to bright tribal kids who have the potentials of improving government services.
Two weeks ago, in Tawitawi, I also hired a Badjao kid who graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Mindanao State University (MSU) in Bongao.
Roben Abdellah was tasked to teach the children of Badjao fishermen how to read and write and convince them to go to college too.
I am sure there are many more bright Tribal kids out there just waiting to be given a chance to prove their worth and show their talents.
(Photos show Rollie Osayan with his dreamed photo with his Secretary, demonstrating the operation of the NACCAG website and posing with Dr. Alice Ilaga and Dr. Esteban Godilano.)
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