THE Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) are partnering to boost food productivity, stabilize prices, and build climate resilience through space technology.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., in a meeting with PhilSA officials, discussed integrating satellite data with on-ground validation for precision farming. To ensure that data matches ground reality, the DA will deploy some 1,000 personnel nationwide by yearend for field validation.
A priority program is flood mapping. Tiu Laurel asked PhilSA to help identify where water naturally flows and accumulates during heavy rains, so that excess water can be harvested for irrigation.
Satellite data could also guide canal systems similar to Vietnam’s, storing rainwater for redirection to farms during dry months.
“Every drop of water we save is another opportunity to increase production and reduce our dependence on imported food,” Tiu Laurel said.
Likewise discussed was expanding satellite monitoring. PhilSA currently tracks farm-to-market roads and corn and onion production under its DigitalAgri project. The DA wants this extended to vegetables like carrots and cabbages to anticipate oversupply and stabilize farmgate prices.
Other proposed uses include monitoring crop pests and diseases, droughts and floods, soil moisture, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as detecting water pollution linked to fish kills.
For fisherfolk, the aim is to map productive fishing grounds, wind conditions, and ocean currents, providing free, actionable data to municipal fishers.
Currently in development is parametric crop insurance for faster disaster payouts. PhilSA said objective satellite verification of flood or drought damage would replace lengthy manual assessments, speeding up cash disbursements to affected farmers and fisherfolk.
