ILOILO CITY—The Department of Agriculture (DA) is now pushing for data forecasting for crops and livestock production in Western Visayas region.

Data forecasting for crops and livestock production which is used as the basis in formulating policy that would be adopted used to be done by the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Now, the PSA is no longer mandated to do the job.

The job is now to be taken care of by the DA itself. For starters, around 40 technical personnel of DA-6 underwent a two-day training in Iloilo City precisely to come up with estimates or production forecasts.

“This is important considering that production forecasts are necessary for forming policy decisions and strategies to block food insecurity and price instability,” said Clark Melendres, DA-6 senior agriculturist.

The in-house forecasting can aid DA-6 in creating responses to emerging farming issues such as the increasing input prices and climate conditions.

By adopting these responses to emerging farming issues, there would now be a sound basis to use to avert further production shortfalls.

Statistician Sheena Balinsoy trained the personnel from DA-6’s Research Division, Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division, and Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division.

They were capacitated in generating local production forecasts using the statistical methods and models used previously by the PSA.

These methods by the PSA were used to forecast the production for rice, corn, vegetables, livestock, and products in Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guiamara, Iloilo, and Negros Occidental provinces.

“We learned to utilize and analyze time series data, particularly production forecasts,” said Melendres.

“Once available per cropping season, these forecasted data can serve as tools for making sound policy decisions and strategies to boost the actual crop and livestock production,” added Melendres.