The Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCAARRD) led an event coined as Pushing the Best of SIPAG through FIESTA or the SIPAG FIESTA last March 2-4, 2016. This is a three-day event which features the outputs from the various Strategic Industry S&T Programs for Agri-Aqua Growth (SIPAG) conducted by the R&D partner institutions around the country.

Project SARAI or the Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines is one of the initiatives of the DOST-PCAARRD and University of the Philippines Los Baños which aims to provide target beneficiaries/stakeholders access to near real-time scientific information and smarter technologies on agriculture to arm our agricultural sector against climate change.

SARAI Project Leader, Dr. Ma. Victoria O. Espaldon talked about the Smarter Moves for a Competitive Agriculture during the SIPAG Fiesta Techno-Forum on the second day of the event at E.O. Tan Hall. This Techno-Forum is a series of seminars on selected technologies in the aquatic, livestock, crops, forestry and natural resources sectors.

Dr. Espaldon discussed the composition of SARAI and its framework. Her presentation focuses on the following SARAI Technologies, systems and products:

* Water Management Decision Support System (WAISS) is used in monitoring of the soil moisture for early warning for the presence of crop water stress.

* SARAI Maize Nutrient Expert is a system that can be used to determine proper site-specific fertilization level in any corn farm in the country that optimizes soil fertility conversion and income of the farmer. Farmers, with the assistance of agricultural officers, can easily input their farm details in the application. The resulting analysis will provide the farmers a comparison of change in input and change in profit between their current and the recommended practices.

* SARAI Crop Suitability Maps that serves also as decision support tool for the crops at a scale usable by the stakeholders. The resulting maps were evaluated using crop-specific growth requirements, and were then classified into different suitability levels.

After the presentation, Mr. PJ Saavedra of Eastern Visayas State University (EVSU) asked about the contribution of SARAI to drought. Prof. Moises Dorado, a study leader of SARAI explained the use of GIS and RS to determine the vulnerability of the areas. Dir. Rodolfo Ilao, Director of the Agricultural Resources Management Research Division of PCAARRD also added that the SARAI outputs and technologies are being inputted into the El Niño action program.

The project entailed interest from the Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Training Institute (DA-ATI), and they requested trainings for their staffs and technicians with regards to the technologies and protocols developed by the program.

Project SARAI is a three year-program consists of pool of experts from different departments and institutions of UPLB, united for the same goal: for SMARTER AGRICULTURE. (RM Areglado)