The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is modernising its farmers’ registry and database to assist agrarian reform beneficiary organisations (ARBOs) in digitally marketing their products. Thus, the land-based digital marketing effort will showcase all of ARBO’s greatest products online.
“Our main goal here is to spare, as much as possible, our ARBOs from falling prey to unscrupulous traders and middlemen who are taking advantage of the peak harvest season to buy their harvests practically at a bargain price,” says DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III.
DAR would assist ARBOs in profiling their primary crops, providing the public and institutional buyers with information on where to purchase the products. It will also offer information on when planting begins and its typical harvest season, allowing for prior procurement, particularly of bulk orders.
The land-based digitisation is a component of the “value chain boosting” project, in which ARBO members are instructed to combine their harvests to satisfy the increased volume demand, primarily from corporate owners of large fast-food chains and supermarkets.
According to the DAR, some beneficiaries of agrarian reform cultivate farms that are not yet large enough to supply individual demand. When the database is ready, it will be made accessible on the DAR website, where interested parties can go to contact the relevant ARBOs and place their orders.
Meanwhile, this year, the Philippines did better in a database that looked at how competitive countries are when it comes to using and learning about digital technologies. In the 2022 International Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, the country was ranked 56th out of 63 countries. This was up from its 58th place in 2021.
The overall ranking of an economy is based on three things: knowledge, technology, and how ready it is for the future. All these things happened in the Philippines, but future readiness will get better in 2022.
The Philippines moved up one spot to finish 62nd in knowledge, which the IMD defined as “intangible infrastructure” that makes it possible to find, understand, and learn about new technologies. It was said that these things will, in turn, lead to digital transformation.
The country’s overall strengths, according to the global organisation, are its graduates in the sciences and its female researchers. Both things fall under the knowledge sub-factors of training and education and scientific concentration.
In technology, Manila was ranked 49th, which is five spots higher than it was in 2021. This factor looks at how well a country’s overall environment helps develop digital technologies. According to IMD, the Philippines’ greatest technological strengths are its investment in telecommunications, which falls under the capital sub-factor, and its proportion of high-tech exports, which falls under the technological framework sub-factor.
In terms of being ready for the future, however, the country fell one spot to 58th. Future readiness has to do with how much governments, businesses, and society use technology. However, IMD said that the Philippines’ attitude toward globalisation was its best quality in terms of being ready for the future.
Despite its improved overall standing, the Philippines again ranked 13th out of 14 Asia-Pacific nations. On the other hand, Singapore surpassed other Asia-Pacific nations this year, rising one position from its placement in 2021, while Denmark climbed three positions to finish #1 in the digital competitiveness index for 2022.
