The Philippines is an agricultural country. However, despite the government’s efforts to uplift the agricultural sector, challenges related to climate change, high input costs, and farmers’ lack of capability to use developed technologies continue to hamper development. These issues significantly impact agricultural productivity and sustainability in the country, contributing to the higher poverty incidence among farmers. The University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), with its mandate to perform instruction, research, and extension work for the agricultural and engineering sciences, has actively taken steps to address these concerns. Along with technology development, UPLB introduced an action-research program to ensure a climate-resilient Philippine agriculture sector: Project SARAI: “Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines.”

What is Project SARAI?

First launched in 2013, Project SARAI was conceptualized to counter the impacts of climate change on the agricultural sector. It is an action-research program that aims to support the agricultural sector by developing science-based cropping systems, protocols, and long-term strategies to improve agricultural productivity by providing site-specific crop advisories. The Project SARAI is being implemented by UPLB, headed by Dr. Maria Victoria O. Espaldon as Program Leader, and funded by the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCAARRD). It has 11 co-implementing State Universities and Colleges and six National Government Agencies.

Combining ground- and remotely sensed data with crop and weather information, Project SARAI developed various systems and technologies to enhance cropping decision-support systems and provide early warnings. Currently, Project SARAI focuses on nine priority crops of the country: rice, corn, banana, coconut, coffee, cacao, sugarcane, tomato, and soybean.

Digital Agricultural Approaches

Project SARAI has developed several digital products that can be easily applied and used even at the community level. These include the SARAI Knowledge Portal, BanaTech, SPIDTECH, and the Community-Level SARAI Enhanced Agricultural System or CL-SEAMS.

The SARAI Knowledge Portal (www.sarai.ph) is the one-stop-hub web portal that offers comprehensive information for the public. It details Project SARAI activities, partner institutions, and its various components. Visitors can also explore interactive maps generated by Project SARAI, including suitability maps, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), rainfall maps, Standardized Vegetation-Temperature Ratio (SVTR) maps, enhanced vegetation index, and soil profile maps. Information on rainfall outlook, weather monitoring, and soil characteristics can also be found on the website.

Project SARAI also developed mobile applications specific for growing bananas and managing pests and diseases.  Using technical inputs, BanaTech (https://banana-b7ab6.web.app/) estimates the harvest time of bananas, specifically the Lakatan and Saba/Cardaba varieties. Users will only need to input farm information, crop variety, crop stage, and batch size to generate the harvest schedule for a specific banana variety.

On the other hand, SPIDTECH can be used for digital identification and remote monitoring of insect pests and diseases. Reports from SPIDTECH users can be used to detect farm infestations and, consequently, develop localized early warning systems to respond quickly to outbreaks.

Meanwhile, the Community-Level SARAI Enhanced Agricultural System (CL-SEAMS) utilizes free satellite images integrated into the Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS), allowing off-site farm conditions to be monitored by Municipal Agricultural Officers (MAOs) and Local Government Units (LGUs) staff. Through real-time crop progress tracking and yield projections, CL-SEAMS generates maps that are fundamental in decision-making and crafting policies at a local level.

Other climate-smart agriculture technologies devised by Project SARAI include the: (a) Water Balance-Assisted Irrigation Scheduler System (WAISS), which provides site- and crop-specific irrigation advisory and crop management recommendations to end-users via SMS; (b)  the SARAI Soil Database which shows the analysis results of composite samples and its fertility status in accordance to crop established; (c) Bantay SARAI, a digital means of gathering farmer information, planting and harvesting data, along with other pertinent RSBSA data targeted for a dynamic, real-time, efficient online system of agricultural monitoring that can be used as an alternative to pen and paper surveys; (d) Real-Time Weather Monitoring using Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) which monitors the daily weather and uses the site-specific historical data for crop modeling and forecasting; (e) Drought and Crop Assessment Forecast (DCAF) a drought index suitable for the Philippines condition; and (f) Coffee Application Harvest Estimator (CAPHE), a application used to calculate and track harvest dates of the coffee crops.

On to a Climate-Smart Agriculture

On October 21, 2022, Presidential Directive PBBM 2022 086-090 was issued to roll out digital agriculture nationwide, using Project SARAI as the platform. To date, the project has been mainstreamed in the operations of its partner sectors like LGU Dumangas Iloilo, LGU Lupao Nueva Ecija, Mindoro State University, and the Department of Agriculture – Region IV-A. The LGU of Dumangas has been trained and mentored since 2015 in using SARAI Technologies. They have been capacitated to create their own agricultural monitoring maps and assess crop damages consequent to typhoons, El Niño, and other climate extremes. Project SARAI has similarly integrated its systems and technologies into selected DOST-PCAARRD-funded projects namely: Science and Technology (S&T) Community-Based Program for Inclusive Development (STC4iD) on Livelihood Improvement of Mangyan Communities in Mindoro through Science and Technology (S&T) Interventions in Mindoro; Science and Technology Action Frontline for Emergencies and Hazards (SAFE) – LIGTAS: S&T Interventions to Improve Quick Response to Calamities and Natural Disasters in Regions 1, 2, and CAR in Cagayan; and Enhancing Livelihood Opportunities in Conflict-Vulnerable Areas in Mindanao through the “LIFE (Livelihood Improvement through Facilitated Extension) Model” Program in Davao provinces. On top of this, Project SARAI also looks forward to establishing regional and community-level hubs where farmers can easily access up-to-date information and report initial farm conditions.

One of the technologies developed by Project SARAI is the Community-Level SARAI-Enhanced Agricultural Monitoring System (CL-SEAMS) which provides a near real-time and site-specific crop monitoring and damage assessment using Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). This technology determines the characteristics of crop production areas based on historical land cover, weather, and climate data that immediately monitors the current state of the crop production areas. It will help the LGUs provide real-time data to determine the extent of damage from typhoons, droughts, and floods. One of the adopters of this technology has been creating localized and specific weather forecasts/advisories disseminated to their farmers. They have been using a whiteboard in the strategic area of the barangay hall, where they post the weather information for the farmers. These forecasts serve as a guide for the farmers in their decision-making and planning.

SPIDTECH application, on the other hand, has been used not only by farmers but also by agricultural technicians and students. Mr. Ricky Dador, an agricultural extensionist, shared in an interview how Project SARAI was able to help farmers in Dumangas.

“They have provided knowledge [regarding] the prevention and spread of pests and diseases on their farms with the use of the SPIDTECH app,” Dador said. “The technologies shared by their project allowed bountiful harvests and lessened agricultural inputs. We are very grateful to Project SARAi for our success in farming.”

BanaTech application can be used by banana farmers and traders. It is a decision-support tool that can help the supply chain by estimating the banana harvest and its volume. This application has been providing efficient banana harvesting practices for the different demands of the consumers/market. It also eliminates the loss incurred in untimely harvest and immature produce and assists traders and processors in forecasting supply at particular times.

With the widespread adoption and field deployment of these decision-support tools, Project SARAI hopes to improve crop quality and productivity and enhance climate resiliency. It also hopes to contribute to poverty alleviation and eventually empower Filipino farmers. All these efforts pave the way to its ultimate goal—reinvigorating Philippine agriculture.