The Department of Agriculture (DA) is looking to strengthen its early-warning systems to prevent farm losses from market disruptions such as storms, after the agriculture sector reported nearly ₱2 billion in damages due to recent weather disturbances.

In a statement on Monday, Aug. 24, Agriculture Assistant Secretary Genevieve Velicaria-Guevarra said the DA’s Agricultural Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS) is working on a monitoring system that could alert farmers ahead of potential supply disruptions.

She said this system would complement regional help desks by providing a clearer picture of what is coming down the farm-to-market pipeline, including produce that should be promptly made available to buyers.

It would also trigger alerts for logistics and other assistance, allowing the government to respond more quickly to emerging supply and market disruptions.

“The monitoring system will give us alerts on upcoming harvests, weather disturbances, and other developments that could affect the supply chain to help us trigger assistance earlier,” said Guevarra.

The DA expects this initiative to be crucial in preventing vegetables from spoiling or being sold at distress prices amid seasonal harvest surges and market disruptions such as storms.

It was earlier reported that around 5.8 metric tons (MT) of Chinese cabbage and carrots were discarded in Benguet, as the crops showed signs of rotting and deterioration amid continuous rainfall and prolonged congestion at trading centers.

To prevent such losses, the DA said it is also working to strengthen coordination with other government agencies that can serve as “ready markets” for highland vegetables when the need arises.

“Better inter-agency coordination could help channel excess produce to institutional buyers and public programs instead of leaving farmers dependent on already saturated trading centers,” it said.

The DA is making a concerted effort to reduce losses after it reported that the agriculture sector incurred ₱1.91 billion in damages from the impact of tropical cyclones Luis, Maymay, and Enteng, alongside the enhanced southwest monsoon, over the past three weeks.

These weather disturbances resulted in damages to 47,772 MT of produce, affecting 43,340 farmers and 54,611 hectares of agricultural areas across eight provinces.

Still, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel stressed that improving the agency’s early-warning systems is only intended to plug the gap until long-term infrastructure projects become operational.

“Our long-term solution is mega cold storage and vegetable processing facilities,” he said.

Tiu Laurel said the DA is also pursuing interim measures, including the rehabilitation of existing cold storage facilities and installing smaller units to add capacity.