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Archives
October 1-31, 2007
Operating the onion industry with OPREMS
by Ellaine Grace L. Nagpala
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| Onions are stacked in a cold storage warehouse in Nueva Ecija ready to be hauled. |
Onions (Allium cepa) are practically essential in the everyday lives of Filipinos. For every cook, it is an important food seasoning that renders a spicy and pungent taste to their dishes. For the health conscious ones, onions are excellent source of vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber and folic acid. Likewise, it has antioxidants which help delay slow oxidative damage to cells. For the farmers, onions are cash crops which can give high returns considering the high demand and high market price of for the crop in the domestic and foreign markets. Onions can be sold at PhP27.50/kg to wholesale and PhP38.61/kg at retail price.
The local onion industry
Over the past years, the production of onion in the country is slightly increasing to meet the local demand. The domestic consumption of onion in 2003 was estimated at 64,443 metric tons (MT) equivalent to PhP 2,488.14 million increasing to high production of 86,741 MT in 2004. However, despite the increase in farm productivity of onions, the influx of cheap imports of fresh and chilled onions impedes the development of the local onion industry. Reports of smuggled onions also badly affected the local onion growers.
In response to this dilemma, Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap recognized the need for a roadmap of the onion industry, with focus on increasing the productivity of onion growers and the tapping of more markets for onions produced.
Being able to proactively respond to market demand and opportunities is the key to a successful venture with onions. The weak structural integration of the critical resources and information in production, postharvest facilities, marketing, and credit plays a vital role in making strategic decisions, especially in the agribusiness sector.
A successful onion industry is dependent on the interlocking decisions, timing, and effective management of resources. It has vital implications on fund allocation, access to postharvest facilities and institutional market.
In this case, the Bureau of Agricultural Research in partnership with the Optiserve Technologies, Inc. and DA-Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) came up with an information and communications technology (ICT) intervention that aims to establish a field-level business process management system.
Introducing OPREMS
The Operation of an Onion Resource Management Systems or OPREMS is an ICT-based project of BAR and Optiserve that will allow farmers and their cooperatives effectively manage the supply chain of onion. It is an enterprise resource planning solution developed to establish process-driven information which can be shared by the key players in the onion industry.
Thru the project, the onion farmers and their organizations will be equipped with ICT tools to organize, process, and access mission-critical data for planning, production, resource allocation and marketing. With the establishment of the necessary ICT tools, an onion resource management system (OPREMS) will be installed and operationalized initially in Northern and Central Luzon to monitor the supply flow of onion at any given time, at the same time, monitor the activities of onion growers and traders, and effectively link the farmers to prospect markets.
The project's entry-point is the establishment of OPREMS in the top five onion producing areas in the country. Information such as farmer's profile and production details will be encoded and uploaded utilizing the e-Pinoy Farms platform developed by Optiserve. Approximately 5,000 farmers will be enrolled in the OPREMS from the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizacaya, Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan, and Tarlac. The information that will be gathered will be integrated with the current body of knowledge in onion production system for strategic decision-making, i.e. expenditures in production inputs, postharvest facilities, agricultural credit portfolio or advance selling of produce to institutional markets. Moreover, the OPREMS can be considered as a one-stop-shop where information can be exchanged among various partners and stakeholders.
OPREMS heavily banks on the use and interpretation of information for strategic decision-making. Hence, data gathering becomes a crucial step for the success of the implementation of the project.
Once the information exchange structure is established, both producers and consumers will be linked to an on-line auction-type marketplace, or the e-Pinoy marketplace.
What is expected
With the implementation of OPREMS, the onion farmers are expected to become information sensitive when in comes to decision making. Likewise, onion farmers are willed to become entrepreneurs and agribusiness managers thru effective management of resources, thereby leading to a more productive onion industry. OPREMS is also expected to provide access to the critical information from its database houses to different program implementers and policy-makers specifically in the provision of vital support services for the onion industry. 
October 2007 Articles:
:: Yap promotes abundant & nutritious agri food products
:: World Food Day highlights “Right to Food”
:: 72-kilogram squash aces as “Pinaka-BEST” People's Choice
:: BAR awards 16 outstanding researches in agri & fisheries
:: Locally-developed ND vaccine wins PSAS Award
:: BAR conducts bio-organic fertilizer orientation
:: Eleazar receives distinguished alumni award from UPLBAA
:: UPLB celebrates Loyalty Day; Velasco highlights DA support
:: Nutritious malunggay-based recipe wins 2007 Agri-Cookfest
:: Food company eyes the potential of malunggay for biofortification
:: Beverage from malunggay
:: BAR promotes nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals derived from food crops
:: BAR introduces potential product lines from Philippine oregano
:: A fresh look at siling labuyo
:: Operating the onion industry with OPREMS
:: Empowering upland communities through Dampalit watershed project
:: Agricultural Cooperatives: Catalyst for profitability and answer to globalization
:: DA adopts IPM scheme against Brontispa
:: DA implements program to abate use of chemical fertilizers
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