It’s time for farmers to be armed with Android phones and be tech-savvy.

Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol on Thursday gave this proposal during the House of Representatives budget hearing on a proposed P50.6-billion budget of the DA and its attached agencies in 2017.

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In his speech at the appropriations committee, Piñol said part of the department’s modernization program is to allow farmers to send their complaints to the department using their mobile phones.

He said farmers with smartphones may use their Android devices to download an application where they could upload pictures of their concerns and send it to the DA, which will track their location and deploy people to assist the farmers.

Piñol said this service will be open 24 hours daily.

“An app whereby using an Android phone, a farmer can access the DA 24/7 and refer whatever problem he has by simply taking a picture. For example, he could simply take a picture of a deceased palay (rice), send it to a site…and within 24 hours our technicians will be able to provide answers to this project,” Piñol said.

Piñol said even those complaining of damaged irrigation canal may take a picture of it and send it to the DA for help.

“On the other hand, if a farmer complains of a damaged irrigation canal, he can simply text and we will be able to locate right away where he comes from, where he is sending the message. So that we will be able to validate whether the sender is really a farmer complaining of a valid problem,” Piñol said.

“This is the modernization we’re talking about,” he added. RAM/rga

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