PhilRice launches digital decision-making tools

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) has launched an online data dashboard aimed at helping the formulation of better decisions and policies in the rice industry.

In a statement, PhilRice said its Rice Data Analytics (RiceLytics) website, which provides information on the Philippine rice industry situation and the characteristics of the Filipino rice farmers, is now publicly accessible.

“RiceLytics is a public rice data analytics that aims to aid decision and policy-making bodies at different government levels,” said RiceLytics project proponent and  Information and Communications Technology (ICT) specialist Nehemiah Caballong.

PhilRice said the website presents data on rice area, production, yield per hectare, characteristics of rice farmers, farming methods and technologies used by Filipino farmers, and status of rice industry at the national, regional, and provincial levels.

The agency earlier reported that the development of RiceLytics started in January 2021. The project aims to enhance baselining and forecasting of status of rice farmers and the country’s rice industry.

“The data analytics models will automatically characterize the Filipino farmers, illustrate the Philippine rice industry situation, and monitor and evaluate the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) program of DA-PhilRice,”Caballong said earlier.

Caballong said the project would improve the traditional descriptive studies with new data analytics tools and techniques, and produce predictive and prescriptive analytics for stronger and wider insights.

“We will automate reports generation through the online dashboard, which will provide readily-available, easily-accessible, and always up-to-date information and insights,” he said.

In addition, users will be able to access historical, current, and predictive information about the rice farmers including the basic profile, issues and concerns, farming techniques, preferred technologies, aspirations, and capabilities.