The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is upgrading its farmers’ registry and database to help agrarian reform beneficiary organizations (ARBOs) market their products digitally.

The particular land-based digitization marketing project will feature online each of the ARBOs finest products.

“Our main goal here is to spare, as much as possible, our ARBOs from falling prey to unscrupulous traders and middlemen who are taking advantage of the peak harvest season to buy their harvests practically at a bargain price,” DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III said in a statement on Monday.

DAR would help ARBOs profile their dominant crops that would give the public and institutional buyers information on where and from whom they can buy the products.

It will also include data on when planting begins and its regular harvest season so advanced purchase, especially bulk orders, may be placed.

The land-based digitization is part of the “value chain boosting” project where ARBO members are advised to pool their harvests together to meet the higher demand in volumes, mostly by corporate owners of big fast-food chains and supermarkets.

Some agrarian reform beneficiaries till economic-sized farms and cannot yet meet demands in volumes individually, the DAR said.

“Once our database becomes operational, it will be made available through our DAR website where stakeholders can visit and get in touch with concerned ARBOs, and place their orders. It’s practically one press of the button away,” Estrella said. (PNA)