Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction
Interconnection of everything is brought about by the advances of technology. These
technology innovations can be used to enhance existing application systems or to deploy new
ones.
Although technology is utilized in almost every aspect of our economy, agriculture is
unfortunately left behind. All talk about a strong, inclusive economic growth will remain empty talk
for as long as agriculture is being left behind. Among the three main sectors of the Philippine
economy, agriculture is the most neglected in terms of investments and development. Agriculture
must change to meet the rising demand, to contribute more effectively to the reduction of poverty
and malnutrition and to become ecologically more sustainable.
Agriculture production is manufacturing and, once we understand that, we need to
understand how to measure, monitor and control the crops that the farmers are growing. By
utilizing this valuable crop data, this information can be reviewed and analyzed to help make the
right management decisions for certain fields. This will also allow facilitating easier collaboration of
the farmers and their trusted advisors including the Department of Agriculture.
In line with the above mentioned proposal, the researchers would like to propose MISSA
which stands for Management Information System for Smart Agriculture. It is a platform where the
collected data is used for monitoring and as a basis for the government, specifically the
Department of Agriculture, to issue their policies and recommendations towards a climate resilient
and sustainable agriculture. The researchers will be focusing on developing a user-friendly mobile
Android application which will be used to gather data that can only be obtained manually, to
provide online data viewing and as a service for inquiries regarding agriculture.

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Statement of the Problem
All talk about a strong, inclusive economic growth will remain empty talk for as long as
agriculture is being left behind. Among the three main sectors of the Philippine economy,
agriculture is the most neglected in terms of investments and development. Agriculture must
change to meet the rising demand, to contribute more effectively to the reduction of poverty and
malnutrition and to become more ecologically sustainable.
In line with this, the study therefore sought to address the problem on how to establish a link
between the farmers and the Department of Agriculture for an effective collaboration.