The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday declared its Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA) program as delayed and vowed to mobilize 16,000 of its staff nationwide to fast-track the collection, updating and validation of stakeholders’ personal and farm data.
The DA said the stakeholders’ individual information is essential for the proper planning, implementation and monitoring of billions of pesos worth of agricultural projects and targeted intervention.
The endeavor is consistent with the broad plan to digitalize operations, reduce costs in the food value chain, widen market access to make agriculture a more profitable venture and result to a more stable supply of reasonably-priced food.
Roger Navarro, Agriculture undersecretary for operations, said latest estimates indicate some 10 million farmers and fisherfolk around the country many of whom identify as poor.
DA initially listed 1.4 million stakeholders before the update started and enlisted the assistance of local government units in data collection and verification to identify stakeholders truly requiring assistance.
“We were supposed to finish this update last year but we have so many islands to cover,” Navarro said.
He said some have been purged from the list as they neither own the land nor the crops as mere farmhands and only seasonally employed. They should instead be with agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
“We have to make a distinction between a farmer and farmworker. This will allow us to cleanse the list for better use of our resources,” Navarro said.
