1 
Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City, Metro Manila 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
House Bill No. _________ 
Introduced by Representative Richard I. Gomez 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
The Philippines is predominantly an agricultural country where more than half of its 
population resides in rural areas, with farming as the main source of income. In the country’s 
pursuit of post-pandemic socio-economic recovery, which includes food security, it is critical that 
the government prioritize agricultural technological advancement  as part of its national programs. 
At present, we continue to experience a decline in the agricultural sector’s contribution to 
total employment, with only 22.9 percent of overall employment engaged in agriculture. This can 
be attributed to various factors, including the high incidence of poverty among farmers. If we 
continue with status quo mechanics in farming, there is little hope for improving farmers’ standard 
of living. This would compound our food security problem, as more and more farmers would seek 
better and more stable income opportunities in cities, thereby creating an  agricultural capacitation 
problem in rural areas. 
On top of this, the issues of climate change and its impact on the agriculture sector pose as 
added stress to the country’s food security.The World Bank emphasized that the country may lose 
up to 91 trillion pesos by 2030, if the “services provided by nature (would) collapse and if no smart 
policies will be implemented to protect the country’s biodiversity.” To this end, agricultural 
disaster resilience infrastructure projects are planned to fortify the sector. Nevertheless,  
infrastructure solutions would still be inadequate without technological assistance that capacitate 
farmers in better responding to the impacts of disasters on farming and fisheries, as well as 
improving our overall environmental stewardship. 
Hence, this bill, seeks to establish the Philippine National Agriculture Information System 
(PNAIS) in all cities and municipalities in the country, to create one centralized database under 
August 30, 2022
2:04 pm
4232


2 
the Department of Agriculture that would link all systems to streamline the country's agricultural 
planning process and trading activities. The PNAIS, at the local level, shall serve as an online tool 
and marketplace that houses real-time information on agricultural and fisheries commodities, as 
well as  facilitate direct buying-selling transactions of agricultural products nationwide, thereby 
increasing farmers’ profits per transaction.   
This bill enthusiastically supports the thrust of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., to 
prioritize, modernize and make the Philippine agricultural sector internationally competitive, once 
again. Moreover, this bill is aimed at empowering Filipino farmers and improving their 
productivity, resilience and profitability.  
In view of the foregoing, the approval of this bill is earnestly sought. 
RICHARD I. GOMEZ, DPA 


3 
Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
House Bill No. _________________ 
______________________________________________________________________________ 
Introduced by Representative Richard I. Gomez 
AN ACT ESTABLISHING THE PHILIPPINE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL 
INFORMATION SYSTEM IN ALL CITIES AND MUNICIPALITIES AND 
APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR  
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines in 
Congress assembled: 
SECTION. 1. Title. — This Act shall be known as the “Philippine National Agricultural 
Information System Act.”  
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. — In Section 5, Article XIII of the 1987 Constitution, the 
State  is mandated to "provide support to agriculture through appropriate technology and research, 
and adequate financial, production, marketing, and other support services." In pursuit of 
modernizing and improving the competitiveness of the agricultural sector, the establishment of a 
nationwide, integrated, digitalized, web-based agricultural commodity supply inventory and 
registry system is imperative. This information system would not just provide information on 
agricultural commodities and a digital market place platform for local farmers to sell directly to 
buyers, but also other critical information, such as, localized inclement weather advisories and 
information on agricultural support services, such as, storage, drying facilities and an online 
market for agricultural inputs. 
SEC. 3. Objectives. — This Act aims to attain  the following objectives: 
(A) Link the Department of Agriculture (DA), LGU Agricultural Offices, individual
farmers, organized agricultural organizations and communities nationwide to an easy-
to-access digital agricultural information system;
4232


4 
 
(B) 
Provide real-time information on commodity prices at the local, national and 
international levels; 
(C) 
Provide an up-to-date database of agricultural and fisheries inventories per LGU; 
(D) 
Provide a nationwide online agricultural market that would enable direct  
transactions between farmers and buyers, thereby increasing the farm gate prices for 
farmers; 
(E)    Allow LGUs to manage and customize their information database to suit the needs 
of local farmers and fisheries stakeholders; 
(F) 
Allow farmers to directly register and upload or share pertinent information on  
their farming inventories, and carry out their own transactions; 
(G)     Ensure that all forms of assistance given to local government units (LGUs), 
registered cooperatives and other qualified individuals and organizations are digitally-
documented and tracked; and  
(H) Allow the DA to access real-time aggregate agricultural information for the country 
and thereby aid the agency in making timely, responsive and impactful policies to 
improve overall national agricultural performance. 
SEC. 4. Philippine National Agricultural Information System.— The Department of 
Agriculture (DA) is hereby mandated to design, create and establish the Philippine National 
Agricultural Information System (PNAIS), hereinafter referred to as the “Information System .” 
The AIS shall serve as a dynamic, online, digital database and software application, that is 
accessible both via the internet from either: (a) desktop or laptop computers and (b) a DA- 
proprietary mobile phone application.    
The DA shall accommodate the main servers and software platforms in its own 
information and data centers, to ensure web and online security. The PNAIS shall be designed 
such that a uniform, yet customizable, interface be disseminated and thereafter managed by each 
LGU Agricultural Office in the country. The AIS shall also be integrated with the existing 
systems of the DA.  
The Information System shall have (but not limited to) the following features and 
contents: 
a) Registry of farmers, including: 
• Demographic details of individual farmers and/or farming enterprise or 
organization, including age group, gender, ethnic group, income, seminars 
and trainings attended, and assistance received; 
• Farm location, type and crops;  
 


5 
 
b) Inventory management, including: 
• Historical harvest volumes per crop, livestock, and fisheries types 
• Harvest forecasting per crop, livestock and fisheries types 
• Unified system of inventory to allow for real-time aggregate, national 
information processing;  
c) Online marketplace, including search options for buyers and sellers of 
agricultural, fisheries and agro-forestry products, inputs, equipment and semi-
value added products; and  
d) Flexible report generation from both the national and local levels. 
SEC. 5. Registration.— All cities and municipalities shall encourage and  facilitate the free 
registration of all farmers, fisherfolk, suppliers, and buyers transacting within their respective 
areas in the Information System. 
SEC. 6. Functions and Responsibilities of Cities and Municipalities. — The LGU shall 
exercise the following functions and responsibilities: 
a) The City/Municipal Agriculture Office, in coordination with the Municipal 
Agrarian Reform Office, shall gather, encode, and consolidate all pertinent data 
on the profile and demographics of farmers, fisherfolk as well as buyers; 
b) Conduct capacity building training to orient the stakeholders, especially farmers, 
on the use of the Information System;  
c) Monitor and control farm inputs including machineries and equipment; 
d) For municipalities and component cities, prepare and submit real-time data to the 
provincial agricultural office and to the respective regional offices of the DA; 
e) For highly urbanized cities, submit real-time data to the respective regional offices 
of the DA;  
f) Establish farmer and buyer linkages and act as a gatekeeper at the city or 
municipal level in the nationwide marketing of agricultural products; and 
g) Serve as the web administrator at the municipal or city level and be responsible 
for integrating farm and fisheries locations into the geographic integration system 
map. 
SEC. 7. Functions and Responsibilities of the Province. — The provincial government shall 
have the following functions and responsibilities: 
a) The Provincial Planning and Development Office (PPDO) is the web 
administrator at the provincial level and is responsible for integrating farm and 


6 
 
fisheries data into the geographic integration system maps for agriculture and 
fisheries; 
b) The Local Economic and Investment Promotion Office (LEIPO) acts as the lead 
administrator of the PNAIS in the provincial level and ensures the balance 
between supply and demand; 
c) The Provincial Agricultural Office monitors the submission of reports from 
municipalities and component cities, and ensures the completeness, accuracy, and 
validity of data submitted by the Municipal Agricultural Offices and the 
Municipal Agrarian Reform Offices; and 
d) Except for highly urbanized cities, prepare and submit such data to the regional 
office of the DA. 
SEC. 8. Functions and Responsibilities of the Regional Office of the DA. — The regional 
office of the DA shall have the following functions and responsibilities:  
a) Integrated the data provided by the provinces and highly urbanized cities in the 
existing information systems of the DA such as the National Farmers and 
Fisheries Information System (NFFIS) which is a web-based data collection 
system that serves as a platform for updating the Registry System for Basic 
Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA); 
b) Collaborate with the regional offices of the Department of Trade and Industry 
(DTI) in order to facilitate the availment of the various programs of the DTI as 
well as strengthen market linkages through such programs; 
c) Recommend to the central office of the DA appropriate interventions in the form 
of marketing, importation, and training assistance, as may be needed; 
d) Validate the data from the LGUs acting as the system administrator at the regional 
level and provide real-time report to the central office of the DA; and 
e) Endorse for financial assistance the qualified fifth and sixth class municipalities 
that can be given assistance in establishing and maintaining their respective AIS. 
SEC. 9. Functions and Responsibilities of the Central Office of the DA. — The central office 
of the DA shall have the following functions and responsibilities: 
a) Allocate funding for the design, creation and establishment of of the Philippine 
National Agricultural Information System (PNAIS); 
b) Undertake the design, creation and establishment of the PNAIS, after consultation 
with local farmers, LGUs, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), agriculture-
focused non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civic organizations, 
agricultural trading organizations, international agricultural organizations, the 
Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the Department of Information 


7 
 
and Communications Technology (DICT) and the National Disaster Risk 
Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC); 
c) Allocate funding for the integration of the Information System with existing 
information systems; 
d) Coordinate with the DICT to upgrade, expand, and integrated its information 
systems; 
e) Ensure that the implementation, appropriate verification processes and 
information safeguards are in place pursuant to existing laws and regulations, in 
coordination with the DICT, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), National 
Privacy Commission (NPC), Department of theInterior and Local Government 
(DILG), and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST); 
f) Approve the prioritized interventions by the regional offices and allocate 
corresponding funding; 
g) Collaborate with other agencies for the creation of market linkages in the domestic 
and international markets; and 
h) Provide safety nets in the import and export of agricultural products in order to 
support farmers.  
SEC. 10. Reports. — The Secretary of the DA shall prepare and submit to the President and 
both Houses of Congress an annual report on the implementation of the program which shall 
contain the list of accomplishments and recommendations for improvements. 
SEC. 11. Implementing Rules and Regulations. — Within ninety (90) days after the effectivity 
of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture shall promulgate the necessary rules and regulations for 
the effective implementation of this Act. 
SEC. 12. Appropriations. — The Secretary of Agriculture shall include in the Department's 
programs the establishment of the PNAIS, the funding of which shall be included in the annual 
General Appropriations Act. The LGUs shall provide the necessary funds for the management 
of their local PNAIS in their respective annual budgets. 
SEC. 14. Separability Clause. — If any provision of this Act is held invalid or 
unconstitutional, the other provisions not so declared shall remain in force and in effect. 
SEC. 15. Repealing Clause. — Any other law, issuance or part thereof inconsistent with this 
Act are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.  
SEC. 16. Effectivity Clause. — This Act shall take fifteen (15) days after its publication in 
the Official Gazette or in two (2) newspapers of general circulation.  
 


8