LA UNION – Anticipating a higher bulk of seeds to be distributed to farmer beneficiaries for the upcoming cropping season this year, the Department of Agriculture in Ilocos Region along with local government units were given a green light on the use of the Rice Seed Monitoring System (RSMS).

In an orientation participated by technical staff of the DA, Mr. Jonathan Palileo from DA-Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) demonstrated the use of the RSMS developed by PhilRice, which has been initially used in the implementation of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) program.

Palileo said that through the system, seed positioning until delivery to farmer beneficiaries will be easily tracked as data such as allocation of hybrid and inbred seeds per city and municipality, delivery date, and inventory, among others will be supplied by the LGUs and regional field offices.

For a systematic use of the RSMS, the same list of beneficiaries uploaded in the Farmers and Fisherfolk Registration System (FFRS) will be utilized. Upon encoding of the seed distribution matrix, packaging specifications, seed volume and other details by regional field officers, counterparts from the LGUs will send profiles of beneficiaries, seed variety claimed, area planted and yield from the previous season.

The RSMS is available as a web and mobile application.

Meanwhile, DA Regional Executive Director Annie Bares is confident that the system will expedite the delivery of services to farmers and fisherfolk.

Aside from the technical staff from the DA-RFO1 led by Field Operations Division Chief Ms. Analiza Ramos, also present in the orientation are partner seed companies and PhilRice staff.

A week back, Municipal and City Agriculturists from the entire region were convened to undergo the same training before the system’s full implementation in preparation for the wet season.