DA-8, DA central office partner for full operationalization of EV info strategic plan

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
July 26, 2012

TACLOBAN CITY  –  The Eastern Visayas Regional Office of the Department of Agriculture solicited technical support from the Central Office, for the operationalization of its Information Strategic Plan.

The call was made by Regional Technical Director Wilson A. Cerbito, Region 8’s Unified Enterprise Geospatial Information System (UEGIS) Project Manager, during the recent roundtable discussion among the DA 8 officials and the officials of the Information Technology Center for Agriculture and Fisheries (ITCAF) of the Department of Agriculture (DA)-Central Office.

“We are very thankful to ITCAF for prioritizing Region 8 and for extending the necessary technical expertise in the implementation of the National Farmers Registry System (NFRS) and the Inventory System on Agriculture and Fishery Investments (ISAFI). That is why we would like to maximize the available inputs provided to us by the ITCAF experts and take advantage of their presence to operationalize the information strategic plan for Region 8,” RTD Cerbito said.

In response, Director Gary Glenn Fantastico of DA-ITCAF said he is happy that DA-8 and DA Central Office are working together to realize the goal of maximizing the use of information technology for a more effective and efficient data collection, processing, analysis and dissemination.

Dir. Fantastico assured the DA-8 officials that ITCAF will provide the needed technical capabilities to realize their vision of an enhanced information system for Eastern Visayas.

“First, we have to conduct a systems inventory to determine the system requirement for Region 8,” Director Fantastico said.

He also revealed other information technology-generated projects that can be adopted by DA-8 such as the online reporting system which could help speed up the exchange of information within the organization.

RTD Cerbito informed that DA-8 officials have to meet again with the DA Central Office ITCAF experts to finalize the proposal for the said project.

At present, DA-8 has already completed the physical structure of its P1.3 million-worth UEGIS laboratory fully furnished with internet connected computers and other hardware for a secured and systematic embankment and processing of NFRS and ISAFI data.

“As of today, we are still working on the expansion of the internet connection to complete the system,” RTD Cerbito informed.

The Joint DA-8 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-Management Information System (MIS) and UEGIS Roundtable Discussion was held on July 19, 2012 at the Leyte Park Hotel, Tacloban City.

The UEGIS project is an effort of the Department of Agriculture through the Information Technology Center for Agriculture and Fisheries (DA-ITCAF) which is mandated to establish the National Information Network (NIN).

Ultimately, it aims to establish a common spatial database infrastructure deployed in an enterprise GIS architecture. With the enterprise GIS as an extensive structure, it is envisioned that the entire DA can be linked through various geospatial information and services where users of the implementing entities can use, analyze, manage and share spatial data in the pursuit of their mandates.

The development of the UEGIS will improve the capability of the agriculture sector in the planning and implementation of programs and projects.

In the meantime the focus is on the updating of the various thematic maps through high resolution satellite imageries and establishment of geospatial database of agricultural resources information, agri-socio and agriculture/fisheries infrastructure and support services organized in a GIS environment for easy retrieval, analysis and generation of outputs.