The Philippines is considering introducing Chinese smart agriculture technology in hopes of advancing the country's agricultural modernization. According to a report by the mainstream financial media BusinessWorld on September 3, the Philippine Ministry of Agriculture issued a statement indicating that it is evaluating the potential application of Chinese smart agriculture technology in the Philippines, focusing on whether it can be implemented on local farms in an economical and effective manner.
The statement says that Philippine Agriculture Minister Francisco Tiburcio Laurel visited Zhejiang, China on August 24th. During his visit, he inspected fruit and vegetable farms and learned firsthand about how local areas use digital systems to monitor crop growth and manage farm operations.
The Philippine delegation also listened to the introduction of the farm's smart agriculture data platform. This platform integrates functions such as environmental monitoring, fertilizer management, and real-time production data, helping farms manage the planting process digitally. The delegation then visited a greenhouse and inspected the cultivation methods of grapes, plums, and other fruits and vegetables.
After the visit, Laurel said that the Philippines should not hesitate to adopt agricultural models that have been proven effective in other places. “We must modernize our agriculture and find suitable technologies that will enable us to achieve leapfrog development,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with copying others’ successes.”
Laurier also stated that there is room for cooperation between the Philippines and China in the agricultural sector, and hopes to turn this exchange into actual cooperation.
The Philippine Ministry of Agriculture states that in the future, there can be technology transfer and industrial cooperation in areas such as precision agriculture, crop production, and ecological agriculture. However, for the Philippines, a more important issue is to identify technologies that are truly suitable for its agricultural conditions and are also economically viable.
In recent years, the Philippines has been trying to improve agricultural production efficiency through mechanization and digitization. This time, the Philippine Ministry of Agriculture has turned its attention to Chinese smart agriculture technologies, which also provides new opportunities for cooperation in agricultural technology transfer and industrial cooperation between the two countries.
