April 11, 2017

(From left) IRRI Deputy Director General for Communication and Partnerships Bruce Tolentino, DA Field Operations Service Director Andrew Villacorta, DA Undersecretary for Operations Ariel Cayanan, PhilRice Executive Director Sailila Abdula, and PhilRice Deputy Executive Director for Research and PRISM lead Eduardo Jimmy Quilang at the PRISM annual meeting.

LOS BAÑOS, Philippines—”We are not done here because we still have a long way to go, and now our project will go into the hands of the real users,” shared Dr. Ariel Cayanan, undersecretary for operations of the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) during the 2nd Annual Executive Meeting of the Philippine Rice Information System (PRISM) project on 29 March.

PRISM is the first satellite-based rice monitoring system in Southeast Asia. The main goal of the project is to develop an online system that consolidates and presents accurate, timely, and location-specific information on rice production.

“PRISM maps and monitors rice areas, and produces yield estimates,” said Dr. Eduardo Jimmy Quilang, PRISM project leader and deputy executive director for Research at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).

PRISM provides maps and other information at the provincial level, which are freely accessible on its website. These will help the national and local governments make timely decisions or appropriate interventions to meet their respective rice production targets. PRISM can help policymakers understand what factors affect rice production, the most destructive of which are pests and diseases, for instance.

Using cloud-penetrating radar technology, PRISM is very useful in disaster preparedness and rapid response to any emergency situation.

“In the past three years, whenever flooding or drought affected our rice areas, we call on the PRISM team to provide us with detailed information on the areas that are affected by such calamities,” said Cayanan. He stressed that the data that PRISM provides can supplement official statistics used by the government.

“Implementation of PRISM by PhilRice, with IRRI’s support, will promote the success of the Philippine government’s effort to add focus on historically underserved areas such as Mindanao,” said Dr. Bruce Tolentino, deputy director general for Communication and Partnerships at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

PhilRice Executive Director Sailila Abdula urged the PRISM team to collaborate and form partnerships with other government agencies, such as the Philippine Statistics Authority, and potential stakeholders like the Department of Interior and Local Government. He also underscored the importance of capitalizing on human resources.

According to Quilang, PRISM started as a research and development (R&D) project in 2013 and the R&D stage of the project will officially end by December 2017. “But this does not mean that the project itself will end because PRISM will now move into the operational phase under the management of the DA,” explained Quilang.

“The DA will continue to provide strategic directions, policies, and guidelines, PhilRice will establish the center unit of PRISM, and the DA regional field officers will continue to meet the operations at the regional level,” he said.

Quilang added that other partners in the attached agencies will continue to validate all the information generated and serve as data sources while partners IRRI and sarmap will serve as technical consultants.

“Our meeting today has highlighted the impact that PRISM made in various parts of the country,” said Abdula. “We found that, without a doubt, it has revolutionized rice science technology. This is only one of the many reasons why we support the sustainability of the project.”

Source: IRRI News