Computerization plays vital role in CARP

A full-blast modernization program in information technology (IT) was a tall order of Agrarian Reform Secretary Hernani Braganza when he took over the Department of Agrarian Reform in February last year.

This was a factor that helped the department exceed its target acquisition and distribution of more than 104,000 hectares of agricultural land in 2001.

Nestor Bayoneta, DAR’s management information system chief, said computer literacy among the department’s officials and rank-and-file employees played a significant role in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

He said central and provincial officials and employees underwent extensive training in computer literacy, and 80 percent of the obsolete computer units were upgraded and replaced with new ones.

Bayoneta attributed the gains of CARP to DAR’s modernization program that began a year ago, and the adoption of innovative approaches under the five special task forces which Braganza created.

"Computer literacy is high among the managers and provincial officers, and even ordinary employees. Regional directors had their own information system planning after we trained them," he said.

Bayoneta said computer literacy must begin within their ranks, with farmer-beneficiaries, mostly managers and members of farmers’ cooperatives, next in line.

"We will go into that," Braganza said.

"Farmer-beneficiaries must be able to know what IT is. I don’t think education is an obstacle for as long as a farmer has the drive to learn," he said.

He said computerization plays a key role in the systematic filing, retrieving and processing of documents, making transactions for CARP coverage and distribution easier and faster.