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Project SARAi Knowledge Portal to help
farmers mitigate the impacts of climate change 
The Department of Science and Technology, in partnership with the University of the Philippines Los Baños, has launched the SARAi Knowledge Portal to serve as a guide for farmers to counter the impacts of climate change.
SARAi, which stands for Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines, is an action-research program, funded by the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCAARRD). It seeks to reduce climate risks by providing agricultural stakeholders with site-specific crop advisories. The information displayed on the portal includes cropping advisories for rice, corn, banana, coconut, coffee, cacao, sugarcane, soybean, and tomato. What makes it unique and convenient is that users can choose specific locations for specific crops in the selection tool and they will be provided the recommended cropping period, weather and specific climate advisory during the period, and the recommended harvest season of the planted crops. This is essential to give farmers advance information on what to expect within a 30-day time period or more, helping them prepare for weather disturbances and potential loss. What’s more, since Project SARAI implements near real-time monitoring of production areas using remotely-sensed images, implemented by the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), together with 11 State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and six national government agencies, the forecasts provided are accurate. “Climate change is truly one of the major challenges that the agriculture industry must face in the very near future. In fact, it is already causing trouble with severe weather conditions right now. CropLife, through a comprehensive study, has taken the first step to reach out to agriculture ministers across the world about potential solutions to the problem and we are happy that technology is being used to arm our farmers with the tools to deal with the problem. Salute to the DOST and the academe for making this possible,” CropLife Philippines Executive Director Ramon Abadilla, expressing his full support for the initiative. Access Project SARAi here: https://sarai.ph/ |
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