More than a hundred visitors flocked to the exhibit booth of the Project Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines (SARAi) during the 2024 Regional Science, Technology, and Innovations Week (RSTW) on May 7-9, 2024 at the Calapan City Convention Center, Oriental Mindoro.
Visitors include educators, students, and representatives from both government agencies and private companies who inquired about the technologies of the project.
The SARAi project aims to empower Filipino farmers with advanced technologies and data-driven methodologies. Among these technologies are the Community-Level SARAi-Enhanced Agricultural Monitoring System (CL-SEAMS), Banana Technology Application (BANATECH), Smart Pest Identification Technology (SPIDTECH), and SARAI Knowledge Portal. These drew a diverse crowd of enthusiasts during the three-day RSTW.
CL-SEAMS provides near real-time and site-specific crop monitoring and damage assessment using advanced tools on Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI).
BANATECH is a mobile application that helps banana farmers predict the optimum time to harvest ‘lakatan’ and ‘Saba/Cardaba.’ It can also assist traders in projecting the volume of harvest, which is essential to harvest collection scheduling.
SPIDTECH, on the other hand, is also a mobile application that can identify insect pests and diseases of rice, corn, coffee, banana, cacao, sugarcane, coconut, tomato, and soybean. The application contains ways on how to identify and manage them.
DOST-PCAARRD’s ARMRD and SARAi project team representatives during the exhibit. (Image credit: ARMRD, DOST-PCAARRD)
Moreover, the SARAi Knowledge Portal provides access to the program's farming management solutions through web and mobile applications. Data and information are retrievable and useful to agriculturists and extension workers for extending farm advisory services.
The SARAi project is funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) and implemented by the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).
SARAi technologies and services play a crucial role in driving innovation and ensuring that Filipino farmers are equipped to meet the challenges of the future with confidence and efficiency. The advancements highlighted at the RSTW reflect a significant step towards a sustainable and technologically advanced agricultural sector in the country.