DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 04 December) — A new website that will provide farmers and fisherfolk easy access to data on soil suitability and climatic conditions will be launched this month, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said.
In his Facebook post on Saturday, Piñol said the National Color-Coded Agriculture Guide-Map (NACCAG) will guide farmers on what type of soil they have in their farms, what kind of crops are ideal, what soil nutrients their farms need and what are the risks and hazards that they must be prepared for.
He said that the NACCAG website will be launched a month ahead of the six-month deadline set by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The Department Agriculture (DA) will distribute smartphones and computers to the farmers’ and fishermen’s groups next year, Piñol said.
Seminars and workshops will be conducted at the local level to capacitate the farmers and fishermen on using the website, he said, adding that with the launch of the NACCAG, “agriculture in the Philippines “will never be the same again.”
To get the data they need, Piñol said website users will only have to input the name of their village and town.
For investors, they only have to type the name of the crop they would like to invest in and the website will generate the list of areas where this could be grown ideally, he said.
Piñol added that the fisherfolk would get an update on the weather conditions and the risks and hazards they face when going out to sea.
The NACCAG is part of the Adaptation and Mitigation Initiatives in Agriculture (AMIA) project which is part of the preparation of the DA for climate change, Pinol, governor nof North Cotabato from 1998 to 2007, said. (Antonio L. Colina IV/ MindaNews)
