DA to soft launch Command Center in November

The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Monday announced plans to soft launch its Command Center, which will consolidate critical data including production, imports, and stock levels among others, in November.

According to the DA, the Command Center will also have data on the different types of the same products and their movements, wholesale and retail prices, consumption rates, production and post-harvest infrastructure, utilization, irrigation coverage, spoilage, and global market trends, among others.

The trade data will come primarily from the Osiris system of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) and will initially focus on the rice value chain, with swings in prices possibly unsettling economic assumptions tied to inflation.

This comes as Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said his initial thinking in entering the government was to focus on production, but has since realized that management should also be a focus with the shift toward precision and volume.

“The DA already have most of these data, but they are scattered across various agencies. We must bring them together and make more sense of them, plus gather additional data that we lack, so we can use our limited resources more efficiently and productively,” he said.

The Command Center model will also be adapted to other sectors such as high-value crops, livestock, poultry, and fisheries, along with the central registration of all food facilities and cold and dry warehouses with their stock levels.

“The digital nerve center will consolidate critical data including production, imports, stock levels, different types of the same products, and movements, wholesale and retail prices, consumption rates, production and post-harvest infrastructures, utilization, irrigation coverage, spoilage, global market trends, and etc.,” the DA said. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuneas/RSJ, GMA Integrated News