An official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) on Wednesday pushed for the strengthening of digital agriculture in the country to further develop the sector. Gerald Glenn Panganiban, director of the DA-Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), said the measure is aimed at increasing food production. ‘Digital agriculture is important because we can have information about weather forecast, weather prediction, our yield mapping, our water applications, we can also see what nutrients our plants need using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools and this will help our farmers,’ he said at the Laging Handa briefing. Digital agriculture, he said, involves the use of digital tools like smartphones, computers, physical infrastructure, internet and other communications equipment to collect and analyze relevant data that can help improve the sector. “We can collect and analyze our data in agriculture and use our technology across the value chain – so from production to test management. Even in marketing, our marketing platforms are also included in digital agriculture,’ the BPI official added. Asked about the role of the bureau on digital agriculture, Panganiban said they “have research centers where our smart farms are located”. “We have greenhouses where it is controlled by digital technologies, computers that control watering, providing nutrition to the plant and monitoring pests and disease. We have it in Baguio, we also have it in our regional offices in our DA offices nationwide, in our select offices nationwide…because of climate change we see that controlled environment farming, which is also a digital agriculture project we can practice or we become more prepared for climate change or disturbances and of course, pest and disease outbreaks,’ the BPI official added. Panganiban explained that farmers and stakeholders will have access once digital agriculture has been developed. ‘Our centers, as I mentioned, are open to our farmers. In fact, here in Baguio, our farmers trained right there at our center and when they know your framework or your system on how to use these advanced technologies,’ he said. ‘They can apply them, and with the help of interventions from other agencies of the Department of Agriculture, they can propose or they can be given interventions that they can distribute to their communities or their organizations,’ the BPI director added. He also lauded the support of the government to this endeavor. ‘We are fortunate to have been given the support of our President and the Department of Agriculture and we have been given an increase budget – to strengthen our research centers, smart agriculture greenhouses and to train our farmers and stakeholders that’s a tool, that’s digital agriculture. Secondly, we will continue to collaborate with our private sector partners so that they themselves can provide us with information on what they need in the market, what they need or demand is what we will provide,’ he added. The BPI director also mentioned some major programs of the bureau such as the Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Program. ‘This program involves planting in backyards of individual families and in our communities, they can supply farmers or organizations, if they have volumes (produced) they can sell in the market,’ he explained. Panganiban also noted their collaboration with the Department of the Interior and Local Government in support of the latter’s Halina’t Magtanim ng Prutas at Gulay (HAPAG) program. ‘We are lucky, the Department of Interior and Local Government supports us so that our barangays have a food production system, so that there is an alternative and closer source of their vegetables and fruits and other agricultural needs,’ he said.

Source: Philippines News Agency