The chairperson of the House Committee on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on Monday recommended the expansion of government-led, technology-driven agricultural programs to improve farmers’ productivity and income.<\/p>\n
In a news release, Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco said the government must prioritize equipping farmers with the necessary technology and knowledge to maximize productivity and income potential.<\/p>\n
“Embracing technology-driven farming methods is key to strengthening our agriculture sector,” Tiangco said.<\/p>\n
He cited successful initiatives in Hermosa and Dinalupihan in Bataan such as small water impounding systems, fertigation techniques, and drip irrigation, which have boosted crop production.<\/p>\n
“According to the agriculture department, these technologies can cut fertilizer use by up to 70 percent and reduce water consumption by 30 percent,” he added.<\/p>\n
Tiangco said scaling up these programs nationwide would help farmers optimize resources and lower production costs.<\/p>\n
“We need to replicate these programs nationwide. Expanding their reach will help farmers optimize resources and lower production costs,” he said.<\/p>\n
The lawmaker called on the Department of Agriculture (DA) to explore more private sector partnerships to enhance farmer welfare.<\/p>\n
Tiangco highlighted the DA-Agricultural Training Institute\u2019s Digital Farmers Program (DFP), which provides farmers with smartphones, tablets, and internet access to enhance agricultural productivity.<\/p>\n
“The lack of access to smartphones and internet is a major barrier to technology adoption among rice farmers,” he said.<\/p>\n
He added that bringing public agricultural services online will provide farmers with valuable data and easier access to government assistance.<\/p>\n
“The government must invest in programs that give farmers access to digital tools,” he said. (PNA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bringing technology to the forefront of agriculture can transform farmers’ lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology"],"zyndk8_nxtgen_metadata":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}