MMSU gears for Agri digitalization, launches e-FARMS

MMSU digitalizes its records management through the MMSU e-Farms, offering sustainable solutions to modernize and industrialize the University's agri-fishery management.

FREMONT CA: Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) has implemented a web-based system that will help with farm management. The MMSU e-Farms system, which was recently launched by the university’s Planning Directorate’s Knowledge Management (KM) unit, will make it easier to record and analyze agricultural data for faster decision-making. The initiative, according to MMSU president Shirley Agrupis, is to support the university’s goal of becoming a smart university in the Philippines.

MMSU farm managers and project leaders had to manually record and analyze data for decision-making in the recent past, a process that may take a week or more. The web-based system will assist humans in more efficient data management of the agri-fishery activities to support data-driven decision-making since MMSU has vast farmlands to manage.

The digital platform, as per MMSU information services chief John Vincent Toribio, includes systems for farm machinery management, crop management and production, farm products, supply and material inventory management, and livestock and fishery management. It also includes an integrated data analysis and reporting system to help with data-driven decisions, Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring of soil nutrients, moisture, and field temperature, and offline server-based Wi-Fi monitoring and evaluation using the Raspberry Pi compact computer.

Implementing a solar-powered water supply system for piggery and poultry, with an initial set-up in the Nagbacsan region of MMSU’s Batac campus, as well as field monitoring and assessment using autonomous underwater vehicles and closed-circuit television, are among the embedded components. To use the online platform, farm managers and project leaders need to create accounts and register. Data from the project will be uploaded and examined, with the results being used by top management to decide.

The emergence of e-Farms is part of MMSU's P2-million, Establishment of Data Analytics Infrastructure for Improved Health and Agriculture Monitoring and Reporting Toward Government Digitization project, which also includes the creation of an infirmary medical and dental record management system.