DA, ISAT University ink deal for digital agri hub in Western Visayas

Department of Agriculture (DA) Western Visayas’ Regional Executive Director Dennis Arpia and Iloilo Science and Technology University (ISAT-U) president Dr. Gabriel M. Salistre Jr. signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on November 19 for the establishment of the DA Virtual Hub for Agricultural Supply Chain Development and Market Connectivity.

The department pushes for digital transformation in agriculture, leveraging blockchain technology and data analytics to modernize supply chains to address major constraints faced by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and farmers cooperatives and associations in accessing markets and adapting to economic changes.

This collaborative project of DA and ISAT-U, tagged as the DA Virtual Hub, will integrate e-commerce platforms with real-time data to streamline operations, enhance market accessibility and promote transparency. With key features, including a role-based user dashboard, databasing, and mapping tools, the virtual hub will be used to monitor production and analyze consumer trends effectively.

By integrating existing government systems such as price monitoring databases, profiles of clusters and institutional markets, and commodity harvest projections, the virtual hub will provide free access to farmer’s organizations to sell their products directly to participating institutional markets.

Director Arpia expressed gratitude to ISAT-U for complementing the DA Virtual Hub with their research entitled “Building a Decentralized E-Commerce Platform: Empowering MSMEs and Customers through Blockchain Technology and Data Analytics” which intends to provide support to farmers and stakeholders in rural areas, citing that the use of information technology or digitalization is imperative with the ongoing challenges in the sector.

“Dapat buo ang pagtingin natin sa (agrikultura) kasama ang market at logistics at para real time ang assessment ng production na hindi ka mabiktima lagi ang mga magsasaka na tumama sa ani, pero talo sa kita. It’s good that we have this project that we hope to be operationalized soon and will serve as a guide by other regions,” he added.

The recently-held MOA signing was witnessed by project leaders James Daniel Gregori of DA Western Visayas and Rayjand Gelamucho of ISAT University. This collaborative project is spearheaded by Clark Melendres, DA senior agriculturist, and Dr. Carmelo Ambut, ISAT University Vice President for Research and Extension.

The virtual hub is currently being developed with joint funding support from both institutions for the web development, hosting, database, stakeholders engagement, and maintenance measures.###Texts by SMHToreno with reports and photos from VNOQuimpo and KDCCaldina/DA-RAFIS 6