Abstract

The growth of the agriculture sector in the Philippines for the past few years has been anemic. Smallholder farmers in the country are considered to be one of the impoverished group. These farmers are vulnerable to exploitations by dominant groups caused by their lack of capital, lack of inputs, lack of post-harvest facilities, and lack of information to trade directly to the market. The rapid growth of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides ways to share and access information. ICT in agriculture, also known as e-agriculture, provides solutions to agricultural challenges. The present study focuses on business-to-business e-commerce and investigates how it can be applied in the Philippine setting. The purpose of this study is to develop a B2B e-commerce framework that will facilitate smallholders' access to agricultural inputs and connections to suppliers and buyers. As a result of literature review and initial interviews, the structure and flow of information of the proposed B2B framework is presented. The framework to be developed from this study can be used to help smallholders improve their livelihood, address some of the growing challenges in the agriculture sector of the Philippines, and contribute to the body of knowledge.

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