Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Remote-Sensing for Agriculture Project in the Philippines

Senator Edgardo J. Angara, Chair of the Congressional Commission on Science and Technology and Engineering (COMSTE), and Representative Joseph Emilio Abaya, COMSTE co-chair, today identified the priority projects of COMSTE for 2011 which include Telemedicine, Remote-Sensing for Agriculture, Electronic Vehicles and Green Transport and Disaster Science.

Recognizing the significance of information and communications technology (ICT), Angara and Abaya renewed its commitment to further revolutionize the delivery of basic health services to remote areas throughout the country through telemedicine which allows physicians to perform remote diagnosis of patients from far-flung areas underserved by traditional medical care.

He added that aside from improving basic health care services and delivery to remote areas, telemedicine will create the foundation for digital medical records. By collecting data from patients all over the country, transitioning to a digital medical record system will become easier.

Meanwhile, in his effort to improve the country's agriculture system, Angara is pushing for the implementation of Remote-Sensing for Agriculture Project, which utilizes ICT to provide farmers with the latest market data on agriculture.

"Competitive agriculture means efficiently growing high value crops, using remote sensing to anticipate heavy rains or drought, understanding the effects of climate change and pollution on productivity, and having an integrated view of the logistics of produce delivery to the market," he said during the weekly Kapihan sa Senado.

Another priority project of COMSTE is the Electronic Vehicles and Green Transport which will hugely benefit tourism, renewable energy, and electronics industries. "Electric vehicles are viewed as the vehicles technology of the future. Being one of the first to actually adopt the technology, this industry could open up a big export market for the country. Green transport solutions also take advantage of using waste-to-energy technologies to fuel e-vehicles," he said.

The Disaster Science Project, on the other hand, aims to upgrade the current capabilities of government to forecast weather, send out reliable warnings, and to ultimately prepare the country and the populace upon the onset of disastrous events, and to and rehabilitate on the aftermath of such events.

"The resilience of an entire country rests on the building of resilience and adaptability of each of its vulnerable areas, such as food and energy, and the sources of each, public health, infrastructure and communication systems."

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