There is a website accessible to the public which guides farmers and agriculture stakeholders what crops to plant in their areas based on soil suitability and climatic adaptability.
President Rodrigo Duterte launched the www.farmersguidemap.da.gov.ph in Malacañang in March 2017, barely eight months after he assumed the Presidency and I took over the Department of Agriculture as Secretary.
Also known as the National Color-Coded Agriculture Guide Map, the interactive website was actually a product of the discussions I had with then Mayor Duterte on what innovations are needed to improve agriculture in the country.
I told him that for many farmers in the Philippines, planting crops is a guessing game where they try out one crop, cut it when it does not grow well and then try another crop.
When I took over the DA, I found out that the last soil suitability study conducted in the country was about 30 years ago and the data used in agricultural planning were unreliable and ancient.
Immediately, I formed a team from the Bureau of Water and Soil Management and the AMIA special program to come up with an easily accessible and interactive website which would guide the farmers on what crops to plant in their farms based on soil suitability and climate adaptability.
A young Subanen computer programmer, Rollie Osayan, inputted all the data gathered in the field and in March 2017 the National Color-Coded Agriculture Guide Map was launched by the President.
Today, NACCAG or the Farmers Guide Map is seldom mentioned as a useful tool for farmers and agricultural stakeholders, including investors who would like to know what crops are suitable in which areas.
The program also needs updating as additional data have to inputted and I hope the current DA leadership will not allow this project to go to waste.
Before I resigned in Aug. 2019, I planned to produce an Almanac showing the color-coded maps per town and per province but this did not materialize when I moved to the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).
The National Color Coded Agriculture Guide Map is one of the major innovations in Philippine agriculture which was introduced by the Duterte Administration as part of the program to achieve Food Sufficiency.
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