TWENTY-NINE participants from the Wasan Vocational School comprising students and lecturers as well as officers and staff of the Department of Agriculture and Agrifood departed for the Philippines yesterday evening.

The group, who are taking part in the Paddy Checked System, will be trained to learn new skills and knowledge whisk aims to enhance their performance in paddy production in Brunei.

Prior to their departure, the group met with the Minister of Industry and Primary Resources (MIPR), Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Haji Awg Haji Yahya bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Hj Bakar.

Present to sent-off the entourage at the Brunei International Airport yesterday were Dato Paduka Hj Hamdillah bin Hj Abd Wahab, Deputy Minister of MIPR; Alexander B Yano, Ambassador of the Republic of Philippines; Pg Hjh Mariana binti Pg Dipa Negara Laila Diraja Pg Hj Abd Momin, Deputy Permanent Secretary at the MIPR; Director of the Department of Agriculture and Agrifood; Acting Director of the Department of Technical Education; senior officers of MIPR, the Ministry of Education and the Embassy of the Republic of Philippines.

The programme is a collaborative project between the government of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam through the MIPR and the Agricultural Department of the Republic of the Philippines. The hands-on field training will include briefings by specialists in agriculture.

The group will also be visiting modem paddy fields in the Philippines in order to share their experiences to the other local paddy farmers when they return.

In addition, the programme hopes to encourage the youths to explore the field of modern agriculture to prepare them as future leaders in the agricultural sector.

In an interview with the Bulletin about food security in the country, Nurhidayah Rahim commented on the “need to produce more” as the “amount of production (of rice for instance) at the moment only seems to be able to provide for the farmers themselves. We want to make more so that we can support the whole population.

“We also want to produce more of others like vegetables and fruits. We are still depending too much on imported goods and we should reduce that degree of dependency,” said the 23year-old of Wasan Vocational School.

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