ICT R&D Grants Programme for Asia Pacific

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Project Proposal

Project Title:
Development of an SMS - Based Rice Seed Stock Inventory System for Rice Farmers, Philippines

Recipient Institution:
Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice)

Project Leader:
Roger F. Barroga, Head, Information and Communications Technology Division

Amount and Duration: US$ 30,000 / 24 months

Commencement Date:
January 2005

1. Project Background and Justification

With less land and exploding population, yield increase will have to come from the rice plant itself, using modern technology. Since 1990, the Philippines have produced over 100 new rice varieties. However, only about 15-20 percent of the rice fields are planted with new rice varieties.

Thus the Philippine Rice Research in 1994 created a national seed network called “Seed Net” with 100 “seed centers” serving as “point of sales.” Seed centers multiply “foundation seeds” right in the farmers’ locale, and sell the seeds to commercial seed growers for further multiplication.

From a few “breeder seeds,” breeding centers like PhilRice produce “foundation seeds” which are sent to a national seed network made up of some 100 accredited seed centers nationwide. These seed centers then multiply the foundation seeds to produce “registered” seeds that are sold to commercial seed growers. These private, commercial seed growers multiply the registered seeds to produce “certified” seeds – or the high quality seeds used by farmers to gain 35% yield increase over traditional varieties. A single seed net member with 5 hectares and yield of 4 tons seed/ha can support 100 commercial seed growers. These seed growers, in turn, can produce enough seeds to support 25,000 farmers.

This link, however, has not fully materialized because of lack connectivity and real time exchange of information. Commercial seed growers are not aware of the Seed Net stocks. The Seed Net on the other hand, does not know where to move their stocks.

Mobile phones will enable seed growers and seed centers to link together and share a real-time seed stock inventory system. The system will have an sms server to handle incoming data and query, and a database to process data, directory, and report generation.

2. Project Objectives

The general objectives of the project are to: (1) increase utilization of modern and high quality rice seeds by farmers; (2) increase total national rice production as a result of using high quality seeds.

This activity hopes to (1) develop a real-time seed stock inventory system; (2) enable farmers to query seed stock thru sms; (3) link breeding centers, seed net, and commercial seed growers; (4) and spur a seed reservation system;

3. Project Beneficiaries

This project will be pilot tested in 2-3 major rice growing provinces: Isabela, Nueva Ecija, and Cotabato. The pilot test will involve about 5 seed net members from each province, about 25 seed growers, and one farmer-cooperative per site.

There are the actual numbers in the field:

Seed Net Members – there are currently 100 accredited seed net members of varying degrees of performance. Recent policy changes have required non performing seed net members to be disqualified.

Seed Growers – there are currently 35,000 seed growers nationwide. Their numbers increase when there is a government procurement program, and decline as soon as the project is over.

Farmers – there are about 1 million rice farmers. The number of farmers with irrigation facilities and those in the rainfed areas are about the same. The highest yielder, however, are those in the major rice growing areas – those traditionally with good irrigation systems, and access to high quality seeds like Isabela, Nueva Ecija, and Cotabato Provinces.

4. Project Sustainability

The Project, once fully tested and developed, will deliver services to over 35,000 seed growers and over a million farmers. There is a big market potential of this system, as well as a big boost to the seed industry as this will create awareness and demand for high quality seeds. When the system is tied up with a mobile service provider, the System can generate revenue through toll charges from the text messaging. Seed Growers wanting to buy fresh seed stocks, and move their stock inventory to other seed growers or farmers can only do so be registering in the system. Annual membership fees can be collected. Farmers wishing to join the system and make seed reservations for next cropping season can also register, and pay the membership fee. Finally, the website and the farmers call center will hopefully generate interest among commercial input providers, such as chemical and fertilizer companies, and will be willing to advertise in the website.

5. Project Methodology

Each Seed Net member will be registered in a database, with their location, and celphone numbers. At harvest, each seed net member reports total harvest thru his celfone. A call center receives the report in a communications server, which sends the data in a database program that automatically adds up the total national production of all seed net members. Twice a day each seed net member sends a text message to report seed sale, or stock movement. The call center now have real time information on the available seed varieties by province or region, and can direct any seed grower or farmer to a particular seed center. For this to happen, the project implementation will be set in five stages:

Stage 1 will involve the development of sms program for sending in seed sales report, a database program to tally inventory, a query system to generate stock inventory per member, or aggregate by province, region, and nationwide. We are now creating a Farmers Internet Portal (http://portal.openacademy.ph) where we will create a link for the seed information system. Members can see only the available stock. A database will also list the members of the Seed Net, their location, and cellular phone numbers.

Stage 2 will involve testing the programs during the first cropping cycle – June-Sept of 2005 or Wet Season Crop (2005 WS). This stage will test the sms, database, and web-query system. The test will be done during the fallow period – rest period in between planting –usually from April to June since this is the time seed growers unload their stocks, and farmers look for seeds to plant.

Stage 3 will establish farmers’ call center, using SMS, and a computer server with Internet access. The center will have an attendant to answer text messages and calls and input information in the database.

Stage 4 will identify the pilot sites, identify the Seed Net members and Seed Growers and Farmer Cooperators to be involved in the project. Once they are organized, this stage will train the project implementers – from manager to the attendants. This stage will also train the users of the system – the Seed Net members and the Seed Growers.

Stage 5 will be the final testing of the seed reservation system. Once this is fully functional, the system can roll out of the pilot areas, and accept members nationwide. This will also be a good time to commercial businesses to advertise their products in the website.

6. Project Timeline

The project will be implemented 2005-2006, following two crop cycles and two fallow periods. The Wet Season crop will be June to September (WS 2005), and the Dry Season crop will be December to March (DS2006). In between cropping seasons is a Fallow period, a period of rest. This is also the time where the Seed Net will be disposing (selling) their “registered seeds” to accredited Seed Growers. This is also the time where Seed Growers and farmers alike will be looking for seeds to buy – for the next crop.

For the first year (2005), the Jan-Mar will be devoted to development of the program, software, and setting up the project site, training the implementers. The first crop will be the testing phase of the system. The fallow period before the second crop will give time to fine tune the system, and allow some farmers and seed growers to make seed reservations. After the second crop, the system will is ready to launch on a wider scale, accept membership from seed growers, accept seed reservations, and get endorsement and advertisements to expand the system.

7. Expected Outputs

At the end of the project, we expect to complete a prototype Farmers’ Internet Web Portal and make the Rice Seed Information System link fully operational. Farmers, seed net members, seed growers and extension workers can see online moving stock balance, and where’s the nearest seed center they can buy. The project will also develop a fully operational SMS program that will allow Seed Net member to register via text, send their sales report for the day, and get to know buyers. Seed growers and farmers, in turn, will be able to text where to buy seeds. The system will build a database of seed growers nationwide, link them to each other, and to farmers. At the end of project life, it is expected that farmers in the pilot areas will have fully appreciated the value of using high quality rice seeds, and start making seed reservations for the next cropping season. And if this goes on, over time, the system will spur a push-pull effect – creating demand, and creating market for seed growers. Over time, the private sector will come in, advertise in the website, tie services, and help sustain the project.

8. Project Monitoring

The project will start with a pilot site. Monitoring can be done at any point in time using through the website, the SMS services, through the accredited seed growers and farmers. Other monitoring methods will be in terms of transactions made, seed sales, inventory movement, and farmers’ accessibility to the seeds.

Additional Resources

View Abstract of Project

Last modified 2005-01-19 04:32 PM