THE Department of Agriculture (DA) on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, launched the Agriculture-based Central Data Ecosystem (AbCDE), a P165-million digital platform aimed at speeding up services for farmers and fishers while improving the accuracy of agricultural data.
Developed with a $3.5-million grant from the Republic of Korea through its official development assistance program, the platform supports President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s push to strengthen food security and modernize agriculture.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the system will accelerate farmer registration, reduce duplicate records, and speed up government interventions.
Under the new platform, registration through the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture can now be completed in about five minutes, down from as long as 10 days previously.
The system also cuts subsidy preparation time to five days from up to 26 days, with Laurel saying the process could eventually be shortened to two to three days as regional offices and local government units gain more experience using the platform.
The DA plans to prioritize validation in selected provinces over the next three to four months to generate actionable data.
Korea Agency of Education, Promotion, and Information Service in Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries president Yoon Dong-jin said the platform would improve transparency and help build trust through accurate and reliable data.
The AbCDE integrates real-time farmgate and retail prices, production and planting data, enabling the DA to better manage food supply, inflation, and curb smuggling, profiteering, overproduction, and food wastage.
The DA said the platform, first launched in 2023, is expected to be fully operational by January 2026 and currently supports data for the country’s 10.7 million registered farmers and fishers. / PNA
