DA launches unified digital platform for farmer profiling, price monitoring

The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Wednesday launched an all-in-one platform that digitalizes several services of the agency, including farmer profiling and price monitoring.

The Agriculture-based Central Data Ecosystem (AbCDE) Platform 1.0 is part of the strategic partnership between the Korean and Philippine governments.

The platform seeks to expedite services such as profile registration of farmers which will now only take five minutes from the usual 10 days. The subsidy preparation will also speed up to five days from 26 days, according to the DA.

“We should be able to register more at yung data accuracy, yung duplication, mababawasan. Then yung interventions nila mapapabilis. Nakita nyo naman kayina sinasabing what used to take 26 days, we can now do in five days. And I believe kaya pa ipababa yun to 3 days para mas mabilis ang action ng DA,” said Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. in a chance interview with reporters.

(We should be able to register more [farmers], and the data accuracy [will improve while] duplication will be reduced. Then their interventions will be expedited. As you saw earlier, what used to take 26 days, we can now do in five days. And I believe we can bring that down even further to 3 days so the DA can act faster.)

“Of course, transparency is there. Malinaw dito na hindi mo pwedeng dayain yung sistema,” he added. “Kung may magkamali man, it's really a human error.”

(Of course, transparency is there. It’s clear here that you cannot cheat the system. If anyone makes a mistake, it’s really human error.)

Tiu Laurel said regional agricultural offices will be trained in the coming weeks on how to use the platform, which is expected to be fully operational by January 2027 once all the data are uploaded.

“Kailangan natin i-train yung nasa baba, pati yung mga municipal, LGUs. Kasi it's not just the DA, we need everybody who is part of the gobyerno, sa agrikultura na mag-input ng data dito. Siguro, effectively, we'll concentrate per province muna siguro para nga mas mabilis,” he said.

(We need to train those on the ground, including the municipal levels and LGUs. Because it’s not just the DA—we need everybody who is part of the government and agriculture to input data here. Maybe, effectively, we'll concentrate per province first so it goes faster.)

Price monitoring

Another feature of the platform is the price monitoring system, which will soon show the retail and farm gate prices of agricultural goods to avoid possible profiteering.

“So kaya kailangan natin makita kung kamusta ang presyo ng farmer. At makapag-intervene tayo as soon as possible. And this software will enable us to monitor and react more quickly,” said Tiu Laurel.

(So that's why we need to see how the farmer's price is doing so we can intervene as soon as possible. And this software will enable us to monitor and react more quickly.)

“Kung makikita natin na biglang tumaas sa isang lugar ang presyo, kitang-kita na na lahat from the regional, from the provincial, yung munisipyo, sa national. So everybody reacts quickly…Siguro kung may sudden bagsak naman tapos wala namang importasyon, makikita natin, baka may smuggled goods na pumasok diyan,” he added.

(If we see a sudden price hike in a certain area, it will be clearly visible to everyone—from the regional, provincial, and municipal up to the national level. So everybody reacts quickly… Meanwhile, if there's a sudden drop in price but there are no imports, we'll see it and realize that smuggled goods might have entered there.)

The platform will use artificial intelligence to validate beneficiaries and reduce duplicate entries. —VAL, GMA News