By: Joseph Seabra
The Philippines which has become a
nation that has heavily pushed for infrastructural and technological growth
within the country still has an economy which relies heavily on agriculture.
According to statistics gather by the Philippine Star approximately 30% of the
Filipino workforce is employed within the agricultural sector (Romulo, 2019).
With such a high percentage of the Filipino workforce being employed within this
area the Filipino government cannot afford to lose production if it wants to
continue the countries overall growth. Over the last several years the
Philippines has posted little to no growth within its agricultural sector with
the country having a “0.56% growth in 2018” primarily due to a lack of
productivity (Romulo, 2019). In order to combat this decline in agricultural
growth there are multiple technologies that could be introduced within the
country to increase the productivity of its staple crops.
The agricultural sector of the Philippines
is very similar to many of the agricultural sectors within other Southeastern
Asian countries with the staple crops of the Philippines being rice, corn, and
coconut (2010). One technology that stood out as a source to solving the
problems that the Philippines has within the low production of crops is a
technology developed by Purdue Professor Jian Jin. In 2018 Purdue Professor
Jian Jin developed a mobile handheld sensor that allows for farmers to monitor
the “health of crops while gathering up-to-the-minute data” with the sensor
gathering data such as “physiological features, such as moisture, nutrient and
chlorophyll levels, as well as different chemical spraying effects and disease
symptoms” (2018). If this technology is implemented successfully the
Philippines would be able to increase its crop production by reducing the
number of crops that will die before harvest. Due to the Philippines
cultivating multiple staple crops this technology would be much more efficient
than a technology that focuses on the harvesting of a single crop. This
technology is expected to have a soon have a functioning prototype and can be
expected to be released sometime this year (2018).
There is little doubt that with the
research that has gone into this technology the prototype will cost a large
amount of money, and with the low income of the average Filipino this will not
be a technology that is purchased in large quantities. Though if the Filipino
government provides subsidies to its farmers it should be able to successfully
implement this technology within its agricultural sector. The agricultural
sector plays a large part of the Filipino economy, and if it can be meshed with
the Philippines’ focus on technology and infrastructure, then the countries
overall growth will increase drastically.
References
Romulo, R. (2019). Philippines
agriculture in Peril. In The Philippine Star. Retrieved November 17, 2019, from
https://www.philstar.com/business/2019/07/12/1933913/philippines-agriculture-peril
(2010). Philippines – Agriculture,
In Nations Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 18, 2019, from https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Asia-and-the-Pacific/Philippines-AGRICULTURE.html
No comments:
Post a Comment