In line with the Department of Agriculture’s (DA’s) thrust to modernize the agri-fishery sector, the DA-Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) recently improved its two database management systems (DMS) for digitalizing carapreneurship and cascaded it to clients and carabao-based and enterprise development (CBED) coordinators last May 31-June 2 at the Richmonde Hotel in Iloilo.
Its enhanced DMS are intensified research-based enterprise build-up (iREB) 2.0 and major final output (MFO) dashboard version 3.
DA-PCC’s Planning and Information Management Officer-in-Charge Alvin David said that the enhancement of the two DMS was the output of the Database Management Enhancement System Project of DA-PCC, as funded by the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research.
“The iREB2.0 is a tool to measure the profitability and productivity of the carabao-based enterprise (CBE) at the client or community level of DA-PCC nationwide, while the MFO dashboard is a tool to measure the output of the DA-PCC as an agency,” David explained.
He added that the system is a good tool for information generation, especially when creating important business decisions and planning for the agency’s targets.
Business Development Commercialization Unit Head Zadieshar Sanchez said that the improved version of iREB1.0 was developed by the DA-PCC following its initiative to give value for money to all its research-based enterprises.
In her opening remarks, DA Assistant Secretary for Planning and Regulations Dr. Liza Battad said that the iREB 2.0 corroborates the programs of DA-PCC in CBE. She also added that the said system is a good tool for showcasing how competitive the CBEs of DA-PCC’s clients are.
DA-PCC’s Science Research Analyst Pauline Maramag and Project Evaluation Officer Catherine Alyssa Licudo, meanwhile, shared the improved features in the iREB 2.0 and MFO dashboard version 3.
“Our iREB1.0 has several limitations in terms of usage. But with the improved version or the iREB2.0, we resolved these issues and even improved its database user requirements, graphic user interface, farmer cooperative accounts, and loading time rate,” she explained.
She added that encoding is simplified in the iREB2.0 since a user no longer needs to encode everything in the DMS and that it now contains a data privacy feature where the user is given the rights of privacy and security on his/her account.
“The DA-PCC’s MFO Dashboard version 3 system improved in terms of adding some important functionalities and modifications,” Licudo said.
Such were the creation of a computation tab, modification regarding the showing of the status of submission of performance commitment reviews (PCRs), adding of exporting functions and other administrative functions,” Licudo further explained.
Hands-on sessions were also conducted for the participants to appreciate and get familiar with the two DMS. They were also given the opportunity to present their experience of using the said systems.
“Through the iREB2.0, we can now easily assess the performance of our farmer-members since we can easily check based on their profile and data the areas where we can provide them immediate help in case they need it,” Bohol Dairy Cooperative General Manager Herbert Joseph Tan Puracan said.
He added that the system is very helpful for their cooperative and he thanked the DA-PCC for doing such a great job in improving the iREB.
Baclay Multipurpose Cooperative General Manager Richard Hidalgo, another participant, happily shared that through the iREB2.0, they can now monitor and check if their business is profitable with just one click from their computers.
Meanwhile, Maramag also shared other plans related to the iREB2.0.
“In the future, the iREB2.0 will have a mobile app version, which can be used offline for data gathering purposes and report-generating abilities. Clients will also be given an overall guideline or manual on how to use the system and how often they should encode data to the DMS,” she added. The same cascading workshop will be conducted by DA-PCC in Tagaytay for its clients and CBED coordinators in Luzon come first week of July 2022.
