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Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City, Metro Manila 
TWENTIETH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session  
House Bill No. _________ 
Introduced by Representative Richard I. Gomez, DPA 
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 an Agriculture Information System (AIS) in all cities and 
municipalities in the country, to create one centralized database under the Department of 
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Agriculture that would link all systems to streamline the country's agricultural planning process 
and trading activities. The AIS, 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.  
This bill was first filed in the 19th Congress where it was approved on third reading and 
transmitted to the Senate in May 2023. This refiled bill version is the approved substitute bill in 
the 19th Congress.  
In view of the foregoing, the approval of this bill is earnestly sought. 
RICHARD I. GOMEZ, DPA 


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Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City 
TWENTIETH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session  
House Bill No. _________________ 
______________________________________________________________________________ 
Introduced by Representative Richard I. Gomez, DPA 
AN ACT ESTABLISHING AN AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION SYSTEM IN ALL 
CITIES AND MUNICIPALITIES  
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 “Agricultural Information System 
Act.” 
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. — It is the policy of the State to uplift the socioeconomic 
conditions of farmers and farming communities nationwide in order to promote their welfare and 
empower their sector in the overall development and progress of the country. Pursuant to this, an 
integrated, computerized, web-based agricultural commodity supply inventory and registry system 
linking farmers and organized communities all over the country needs to be established to provide 
an easy-to-access local and global real time information for agricultural commodities, with the end 
in view of creating a wider range of market linkages among farmers and agricultural buyers. 
Furthermore, through a synchronized agriculture information system, the National Government 
shall have access to real-time agricultural information which can rationalize the objectives and 
policy directives in the agricultural sector. 
SEC. 3. Objectives. — This Act aims to attain the following objectives: 
a.
Provide an up-to-date database of agricultural and fisheries products in a locality;
b. Foster information sharing between farmers and potential buyers of agricultural and
fisheries products;
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c. Secure a market for agricultural and fisheries products and ensure appropriate 
return of investment for farmers and fisheries stakeholders; 
d. Allow local government units to manage a secure and independent platform that 
creates linkages for farmers and fisheries stakeholders; 
e. Provide data on specific commodities that are readily available in a particular 
locality for purposes of production monitoring in order to meet the demands of the 
market; 
f. Provide a secure, transparent, and independent modern web application that may 
be accessed anytime by the public through a multi-platform support or cross-
platform support devices which can be linked to existing systems in the Department 
of Agriculture (DA); 
g. Streamline training and seminars in the management of the operations of the 
agricultural information system.;  
h. Monitor the use of inputs given by producers, buyers, and other segments of the 
value-chain including information during post-harvest and processing; and 
i. Ensure that all forms of assistance given to local government units (LGUs), 
registered cooperatives and other qualified individuals and organizations are 
monitored. 
SEC. 4. Agricultural Information System.— All cities and municipalities are hereby 
mandated to establish an Agriculture Information System (AIS). The AIS shall serve as a 
dynamic online computer database where information on the demand for specific agricultural 
and fisheries commodities is gathered and uploaded simultaneously with the production data 
from farmers in every barangay. The AIS shall merge and synchronize agricultural data from 
different sources into a cohesive database designed to facilitate linkages from place of origin or 
the farm to local, and ultimately, global markets. The AIS shall also be integrated with the 
existing systems of the DA. 
The information system shall have the following features and contents: 
(a) Municipal and city-wide identification of individual farmers, fish breeders, and 
fisherfolk as well as qualified organizations which produce specific farm and 
fisheries products, regardless of quantity; 
(b) Crop harvest, volume, and type forecasting; 
(c) Inventory of specific classification of crop varieties planted, livestock and type of 
fish raised in a particular LGU; 
(d) Farmers' and fisherfolk demographics, including age group, gender, ethnic group, 
income, seminars and trainings attended, and assistance received; 
(e) Selected reports presented in both tabular and graphical form; 
(f) Registry of farmers' contact details and farm location to facilitate market linkages; 


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(g) Search engine which allows farmers, fish breeders, and fisherfolk to look for 
potential and actual buyers and for such buyers to search for farms, farmers, and 
available agricultural and fisheries products; and 
(h) Customizable dashboard which is accessible only to registered farmers and 
fisherfolk clients and contains the farmers' and fisherfolk's profile such as the area 
of the farm or fishpond, crops planted, livestock and type of fish raised. 
SEC. 5. Registration.— All cities and municipalities shall encourage and facilitate the 
free registration of all farmers, fisherfolk, as well as 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 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) Monitor and control farm inputs including machineries and equipment; 
c) For municipalities and component cities, prepare and submit real time data under 
(a) and (b) to the provincial agricultural office and to the respective regional 
offices of the DA; 
d) For highly urbanized cities, submit real time data to the respective regional offices 
of the DA; 
e) Establish farmer and buyer linkages and act as a gatekeeper at the city or 
municipal level in the nationwide marketing of agricultural products; and 
f) 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 
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 AIS 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 


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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) Integrate 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 integration of the AIS with existing information systems; 
b) Coordinate with the Department of Information and Communications Technology 
(DICT) to upgrade, expand and integrate its information systems; 
c) 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 the Interior and Local Government 
(DILG) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST); 
d) Approve the prioritized interventions by the regional offices and allocate 
corresponding funding; 
e) Collaborate with other agencies for the creation of market linkages in the domestic 
and international markets; and  
f) Provide safety nets in the import and export of agricultural products in order to 
support farmers. 


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SEC. 10. Duties of the Secretary. — The Secretary of Agriculture shall monitor and 
ensure the compliance of all cities and municipalities as provided for under this Act and shall, 
as soon as possible, establish a centralized AIS that shall integrate and link all existing 
agriculture information systems in the country. 
SEC. 11. Reports. - The Secretary of Agriculture shall prepare and submit to the President 
and both Houses of Congress an annual report on the implementation of the program which shall 
contain information on accomplishments achieved and recommendations for improvement 
thereof. 
SEC. 12. Appropriations. — The Secretary of Agriculture shall include in the 
Department's programs the establishment of the integrated and centralized AIS, the funding of 
which shall be included in the annual General Appropriations Act. The LGUs shall provide the 
necessary funds for the establishment of an AIS in their respective annual budgets. 
SEC. 13. 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. 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 a newspaper of general circulation.  
 
Approved,