DA updating electronic database of farmers, fisherfolk

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said Tuesday it is updating the electronic database of farmers and fisherfolk for better planning and implementation of its projects and targeted interventions.

In a statement, the DA said updating the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture complements its “broader plan to digitalize operations to reduce costs in the food value chain, widen market access to make agriculture a more profitable venture and, consequently, provide consumers with stable supply of reasonably-priced food.”

The agency said it will mobilize some 16,000 staff nationwide to fast-track the delayed collection, updating, and validation of stakeholders' personal and farm data.

“We were supposed to finish this update last year but we have so many islands to cover,” said Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations Roger Navarro.

The DA said that, based on the latest estimates, there are about 10 million farmers and fisherfolk, many of whom were identified as the poorest in the country. 

The Agriculture Department had an initial list of 1.4 million farmers and fisherfolk before it began the initiative.

Aside from its own staff, the DA said it is also enlisting the assistance of local government units in the data collection and verification.

The registration and updating of records and profiles of farmers, farmworkers, fisherfolk, and agri-youth will determine if these estimates are correct, according to the DA.

The agency said updating the registry would also help identify those who truly deserve government assistance. 

In particular, Navarro said farmworkers shouldn’t be in the list of DA beneficiaries because they don’t own the farm or crops. 

Since farmworkers are only seasonally employed in farms, they should be in the list of other government agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development for proper handling, according to the DA official.

“We have to make a distinction between a farmer and a farmworker,” said Navarro.

This will allow us to cleanse the list for better use of our resources,” added the DA official.

The DA said Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has issued two memoranda that outline the latest parameters for the registry update.

Tiu has endorsed the digitalization project and is also looking into setting up an agricultural statistics office to enhance DA’s ability to manage demand and production of food, maximizing returns to farmers and minimizing importation. —VAL, GMA Integrated News