DATE: MAY 12 20g)

Eighteenth Congress
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO. 8721

Introduced by Representative Lorenz R. Defensor

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Agriculture remains one of the three main sectors of the Philippine
economy, and also one of the biggest sources of income and employment. As
President Duterte recently declared, “agriculture is the backbone of the
economy. It forms the basis for food and nutrition security and provides raw
materials for industrialization.”

Sadly, agriculture’s contribution to the national economy has been steadily
declining, Growth in the agricultural sector went down from 1.83 percent in
2014 to 0.56 percent in 2018. The decline in growth has worsened due to
cheaper import alternatives, lack of investments, and outdated agricultural data
gathering procedures in the local government unit level that would otherwise
have been used for better production and marketing planning and policy-
making.

The lack of complete, real-time data on agricultural products available in
the barangay-level and inadequate support for marketing linkages to small
farmers and farm cultivators have led to a mismatch between production and
demand, resulting in minimal gains.

In Mina, Iloilo, the local government unit and its Municipal Agriculture
Office have initiated the necessary reforms to address such problems through the
Municipal Agriculture Information System or MAIS, MAIS serves as a database

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decision-making tool with an up-to-date inventory of all agricultural commodities
in the local government unit and provides for the easy access to a commodity's
real-time supply and production situation at all times.

The MAIS directly supports organized farming communities by promoting
information transfer and exchange of commodity flows, supply and demand, and
real-time inventory. The system can also be used as an analysis tool to forecast
market demand which can aid farmers in crop planning.

During the Seventeenth Congress, Rep. Gary C. Alejano, of the Magdalo
Party-list filed House Bill No. 7835 which was referred to the Committee on
Agriculture and Food. The proposed measure intended to realize the potential of
MAIS in the national level through an enabling law establishing the Agriculture
Information System in all cities and municipalities in the country. The end goal
was to integrate and link all systems into one centralized database under the
Department of Agriculture in order to rationalize the country's agricultural
planning process.

This current proposed measure builds on the endeavors of House Bill No.
7835, adopting the same spirit and intent but taking into account the
improvements in the system and processes that the MAIS has to undergo in order
to accomplish the objective of improving the welfare of the farmers and empower
them to become a vital sector in the overall development and progress of the
country.

In view of the foregoing, approval of this bill is earnestly sought.

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LORENZ RB. DEFENSOR


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Eighteenth Congress
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO. 8721

Introduced by Representative Lorenz R. Defensor

AN ACT
ESTABLISHING THE AGRICULTURE INFORMATION SYSTEM IN
ALL CITIES AND MUNICIPALITIES

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in
Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the “Agriculture
Information System Act.”

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. ~ It is the policy of the State to uplift the
socio-economic 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 an end view of creating a wider

range of market linkages among farmers and agricultural buyers. Furthermore,


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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 products in a locality;

(b) Facilitate linkages from farm-to-market among local government
units;

(c) Provide data specific commodities readily available in a particular
locality for stakeholders;

(@ Secure to the farmers additional sources of income;

(e) Encourage the farmers to engage in synchronized agricultural mass
production to meet the voluminous demands of the market;

(f) Provide a modern web application that may be accessed through multi-
platform support or cross-platform devices online;

(g) Streamline training and seminars in the management of the
operations;

(h) Monitor the use of inputs given to farmers;

(i Facilitate information sharing on commodity flows, specifically,
supply and demand; and

(j) Ensure that government financial assistance is given only to duly

formed cooperatives and farmers groups.


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SEC. 4. Agriculture Information System. — All cities and municipalities
are hereby mandated to establish an Agriculture Information System, hereinafter
referred to as Information System, which shall serve as a dynamic online
computer database where information on the demand for specific agricultural
commodities is gathered simultaneously with the production data from farmers
in every barangay. The Information System 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 information system shall have the following features and contents:

(a) Municipal and city-wide identification of farmers who are producing
specific farm products in small or large quantities;

(b) Crop harvest, volume, and type forecasting;

(©) Inventory of specific classification of crop varieties planted and
livestock raised in a particular local government unit;

(d) Farmers’ demographics, including age group, gender, and seminars and
trainings attended;

(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 to search for potential buyers and
actual buyers to search for farms, farmers, and available agricultural products;
and

(h) Customizable dashboard which is accessible only to registered farmer
clients and contains the farmer's profile, farm details, farm's land area, crops
planted and livestock raised.

SEC. 5. Registration. — All cities and municipalities shall encourage and
facilitate the free registration of all farmers and buyers transacting within their
respective area in the information system.

SEC. 6. Functions and Responsibilities of Local Government Unit. —
The local government unit shall exercise the following functions and
responsibilities:

(a) Gather, encode, and consolidate the profile and demographics of
farmers and buyers as well as other pertinent agricultural data;

(b) Monitor and control farm inputs including machineries and
equipment;

(c) Prepare and submit real time reports to the provincial office of the
Department of Agriculture; and
(d) Establish farmer and buyer linkages and act as a gatekeeper at the city

or municipal level in the nationwide marketing of agricultural products.


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SEC. 7. Functions and Responsibilities of the Provincial Government. —
The provincial government shall have the following functions and
responsibilities:

(a) The Provincial Planning and Development Office is the web
administrator at the provincial level and is responsible for integrating farm
locations into the geographic integration system maps for agriculture;

(b) The Local Economic and Investment Promotion Office acts as the
lead administrator of the Agriculture Information System in the provincial level
and serves as the market mitigator to maintain the balance between supply and
demand; and

(c) The provincial office of the Department of Agriculture monitors the
submission of reports from the local government units ensuring the
completeness and validity of data, and accuracy of reports submitted by the
Municipal Agricultural Office.

SEC. 8. Functions and Responsibilities of the Regional Office of the
Department of Agriculture. — The regional office of the Department of
Agriculture shall have the following functions and responsibilities:

(a) Collaborate with different market linkages from other regions,
integrating geographic integration system data on project intervention, soil map,

suitability map, and commodity maps within the region;


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(b) Recommend to the central office of the Department of Agriculture
appropriate interventions in the form of marketing, importation, and training
assistance needed at the provincial level; and

(©) Validate the data from the provincial offices of the Department of
Agriculture, acting as the system administrator at the regional level and provide
real time report to the central office of the Department of Agriculture.

SEC. 9. Functions and Responsibilities of the Central Office of the
Department of Agriculture. — The central office of the Department of
Agriculture shall have the following functions and responsibilities:

(a) Allocate funding for the operation and maintenance of the information
system.

(b) Approve the prioritized interventions by the regional offices and
allocate corresponding funding;

(©) Collaborate with other agencies for the creation of market linkages in
the domestic and international markets; and

(d) Provide safety nets in the import and export of agricultural products in
order to support farmers.

SEC. 10. Duties of the Secretary. ~ The Secretary of Agriculture shall
monitor and ensure the compliance of all cities and municipalities as provided
under this Act and shall, as soon as practicable, establish a centralized
Agricultural Information System that shall integrate and link all existing

information systems in the country.


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SEC. 11. Reports. - The Secretary of Agriculture shall prepare and submit
to the President and both houses of Congress an annual report on the program's
performance which shall contain the list of accomplishments and
recommendations.

SEC. 12. 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. 13. Appropriations. — The amount necessary for the effective
implementation of this Act shall be charged to the annual appropriations of the
local government units.

SEC. 14. Repealing Clause. — All laws, presidential decrees, executive
orders, rules and regulations or parts thereof which are inconsistent with the
provisions of this Act are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.

SEC. 15. Effectivity. — This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its
publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.

Approved,