Committee presses Agriculture Department to publish public registry of farmers; requests AgroPerfil details in five days

The House Commission on Agriculture reviewed H.B. 286, a proposal to create a public digital registry of Puerto Rican farmers ("Registro Digital Pfablico de Agricultores Bonafide") and the products they harvest.

The bill would direct the Department of Agriculture to develop, implement and operate an online, mobile‑friendly registry intended to allow citizens and local buyers to search for farmers by product and municipality and contact them directly. Jean Carlos Hurtado Rivera, the department's information systems manager, read the department's written position to the committee and described the existing AgroPerfil platform as the foundation for the registry.

Department view: platform exists but needs work Hurtado told the commission that AgroPerfil operates as a farmer registration and service portal instituted under prior administrative actions and that the agency maintains a dashboard used internally. "El AgroPerfil funciona," he said, but the department has not yet published the dashboard to the public and the system requires optimization and expanded features to serve consumers and buyers.

The department's written position noted three constraints for adopting the bill as drafted: no dedicated funding is provided; publication of a farmer's data should be voluntary and require consent; and the proposed 90‑day implementation period is not realistic for the operational, legal and outreach steps needed. The department suggested continuing to develop AgroPerfil and offered to provide a detailed optimization plan to the committee.

Committee reaction and practical use cases Committee President Representative Yoito Colf3n Rodredguez asked department officials to deliver specifics about AgroPerfil's current functionality, budget and a plan for publishing public listings. The committee gave the department five days to provide those details. Colf3n described a consumer use case: a small vendor or household cook should be able to search for nearby farmers selling seasonal produce, contact them and buy directly.

Department officials and legislators also raised operational issues raised in the department memo: the need to integrate AgroPerfil with other agency databases, staffing and training to help older farmers use the platform, and whether updates could be maintained on a quarterly schedule if the registry is public.

What the committee asked for The commission directed the Department of Agriculture to deliver, within five days, a package describing AgroPerfil's current features, the history of its implementation, what additional funding and staff would be needed to publish a public marketplace tab, and a proposed implementation timeline.

Next steps Committee members said they would review the department's submission before deciding whether to advance H.B. 286. No vote was taken at the hearing.