The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and startup company APPGeese Inc. have partnered to develop a pilot digital agriculture platform in Laguna and Quezon.
The project will be undertaken by SEARCA through its Emerging Innovation for Growth Program.
Rico Ancog, SEARCA EIG program lead, said the institution wants to build a culture of open collaboration and harness emerging innovations for growth and resilience of farming communities and agriculture systems.
SEARCA will identify the pilot sites and introduce the project to the communities and local government in the areas selected. It will also recommend best practices for storage and packaging of agricultural products for shipping to preserve their quality from farm to fork.
It will provide insights for the data modelling for artificial intelligence and machine learning as inputs to the digital platform.
On the other hand, APPGeese will design, develop, build, operate, deliver, and continuously improve the information technology infrastructure and systems for the implementation of two base farm clusters.
APPGeese executive founder Raymund Austria said the design and implementation model of the pilot digital agriculture platform features AgriEx, a virtual exchange for agricultural production.
APPGeese will also provide free access to the digital agriculture exchange platform website to the farming beneficiaries and to SEARCA.
SEARCA continues to emphasize the importance of digital agriculture to modern agriculture ecology among farmers.
"The reality of digitizing agriculture is won or lost at the farmer level, where applicability and sustainability have to be further tested. We will prove that digital agriculture is not just an abstract idea but is already a reality," SEARCA said.