Eastern visayas: The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is establishing a regional hub for Project Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry (SARAI) in Eastern Visayas to enhance farm productivity and food security. The DOST regional office in this area will host the hub, which aims to localize and deploy climate-resilient tools for improved food security across the country, said DOST Regional Director John Glenn Oca±a in an interview.
According to Philippines News Agency, Science and Technology Secretary Renato Solidum will lead the opening on January 22, 2026, along with other key officials from the agency's main office. "The regional hub is a center where all the actions for SARAI will emanate from. All agriculture data from LGUs will be processed in the hub for better decision-making," Oca±a stated.
The hub will provide data and advisories by offering site-specific crop advisories, weather forecasts, and pest or disease alerts to farmers. It will also train farmers, local government units, and stakeholders on using smart agriculture tools, including drones for data collection. The facility will adapt national SARAI technologies like SPIDTECH (Smarter Pest Identification Technology), WAISS (Water Balance-Assisted Irrigation Scheduling System), and AWS (Automatic Weather System).
SPIDTECH includes an insect pest and disease library, acting as a comprehensive digital reference with detailed information on pest and disease symptoms, life stages, and management practices. WAISS notifies farmers if the soil moisture content in their farm is nearing a critical level and provides guidance on irrigation timing. AWS offers real-time weather monitoring and uses site-specific historical data for crop modeling and forecasting.
Project SARAI is an action-research program funded by the DOST-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development. It aims to reduce climate risks by providing agricultural stakeholders with site-specific crop advisories. The priority crops include rice, corn, banana, coconut, coffee, cacao, sugarcane, soybean, and tomato.
