after reading the proposal, i visited the website immediately. it is really nice having that kind of a website, helpful not just to the consumers and the producers but the intermediaries as well. the only problem is when i clicked the price bulletin, where i as a consumer is most interested about, i only found the price list for metro manila. what if im new in region and want to get some information, where do i go?
naturally, you cannot compare the pricing in the metro and the different provinces. one because of location, another is the cost of inputs, also the competition in a certain area. i do not blame the DA for this lack of information, maybe its the regional offices (still DA nonetheless) who do not give datas to the national office.
indeed prof. aragon is right, its not the lack of funding itself that this project is not successful. it is the lack of cooperation of the involved agencies. they are payed to perform their tasks and their responsibilities and if they are not payed, it is expected of them to do so because they are not in the office for nothing.
im being emotional suddenly. you cannot do agriculture if your staying in the comfort of your airconditioned offices. you cannot function agriculture and market information service if you just sit there waiting for your monthly wage.
most of our farmers are not knowledgeable of internet and computers and so its really not much of a great help. this project is ought to help the poor farmers to have knowledge of the current selling prices so as the middleman will not outsmart them. unfortunately, this project is again more useful to the big agricultural names and companies for they have access to the internet.
what we really need is to build cooperatives of this smallhold farmers under the constant supervision of the department of agriculture.
and also, the website goes to englishy in gives an impact of intellect which is a total turn off to the farmers. even when we teach the farmers on how to access the website, they'd hardly understand because sadly most of our farmers only finished grade school.
i guess for the consumers who have access to internet, this is helpful. but the best solution for me is for each agricultural sector of each lgu to post in the public market the prevalent buying prices of different commodity.