MANILA -- Agriculture Undersecretary for Administration and Finance Roldan G. Gorgonio, who is also the chairperson for Ease of Doing Business, Transparent Procurement, and Digital Agriculture Upscaling, unveiled the first-ever Digital Agriculture Command Center of the Department of Agriculture (DA) during the closing ceremony of the “Seminar Workshop on Automated Government Service Management System for the Regulatory Agencies of the DA” on November 12, 2021.

“This is our solid commitment to the delivery of service because we have to be efficient,” Gorgonio said.

According to him, the DA’s Digital Agriculture Command Center is an initiative towards innovation in keeping the information in the department. He said this will help in making the delivery of services efficient and guided with accurate data.

He added that the center will serve as the repository of dashboards/databases of all regulatory agencies.

For now, the digital center contains dashboards of Bantay Presyo, updates on the interventions provided by DA, Unified Comprehensive Administrative System, and Covid Monitoring App.

“This will be used by the management to react properly with different situations, which were triggered by real-time events,” Gorgonio said.

“This is our initial steps, and if we will be successful, it will give impactful benefits to DA,” he added

Apart from the command center, the regulatory agencies were urged to integrate their systems and data in the BayaniKita mobile app, which was launched on August 2, 2021.

Meanwhile, Undersecretary for Regulation Zamzamin L. Ampatuan encouraged the participants to fast-track their automation process to be able to streamline the services of DA.

“We need to consolidate our capacity, particularly in terms of digitalization. This will enhance the effectiveness of DA that has been guided with policies,” Ampatuan said.

Meanwhile, Undersecretary for DA Attached Agencies Rodolfo V. Vicerra said that despite the lack of resources for automation, DA still needs to have knowledge-based data anchored on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). He also urged agencies to update their respective data and identify what systems they can already share with other “OneDA” family.

The five-day workshop was attended by representatives from the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Standards (BAFS), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), Bureau of Agricultural and Fisheries Engineering (BAFE), National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS), Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PhilFida), Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (FPA), National Tobacco Administration (NTA), Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), National Dairy Authority (NDA), and Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA). (KMerle, DA-AFID)