Mangotayo!: A sustainable smart agriculture model for mango industry upliftment in Davao del Sur, Philippines

Abstract

Mango production in the Philippines ranked seventh globally, producing high-quality mangoes and supplying different countries. However, from 2000 to 2020, the Philippine mango sector saw a steady reduction in all industry performance metrics, such as production volume, productive area, yield per unit area, and yield per tree. Furthermore, the export of mangoes is not doing as well as in earlier decades. Other problems encountered by many farmers specifically small-scale farmers are lack of pest control and nutrient management, poor induction and flowering intensity, the lack of farm-to-market roads, and low farm-gate prices. Responding to these issues, the Mango Tayo! Program developed an AI-based Smart application for mango production management, utilizing cutting-edge technologies in smart agriculture. Thus, community engagement and activities were conducted to capacitate the women and men mango growers and contractors in Digos City using the developed technology. The program was found to be successful in achieving its objectives—enabling the community partners to use cutting-edge technology in farming.