The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) and the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on December 16, 2024.
This agreement aims to address agricultural drought in the Philippines through the creation of crop-specific drought maps using satellite data.
PhilSA will utilize rice maps and field data from DA-PhilRice to generate these drought maps, enhancing agricultural planning and resilience.
The MOA establishes a framework for secure data sharing between the two agencies to improve drought mitigation efforts.
Dr. Gay Jane P. Perez from PhilSA highlighted the importance of integrating satellite and ground data for addressing agricultural challenges.
“We are celebrating partnership. This collaboration with PhilRice underpins the importance of integrating satellite and ground data, emphasizing how ground data is used to validate, calibrate, and enhance the accuracy of satellite-derived insights and models,” he explained.
For his part, Dr. Eduardo Jimmy Quilang from PhilRice emphasized the necessity of partnerships in achieving their research goals.
“We cannot realize our goals, our dreams, our mission, our vision alone. Our research for development is heavily partnership-based. That’s why right now we are more than happy to sign our memorandum of agreement, sharing what we have and complementing what you are doing,” he replied.
The MOA was signed by key officials from both agencies, reinforcing their commitment to utilizing space-based technologies for agriculture.
This collaboration supports PhilSA’s SatMAPPED project, which aims to monitor and mitigate drought impacts on agriculture in the country.
