BPRE turns over facilities to coops

Ever on the lookout for opportunities to serve our farmers, the Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extension (BPRE), an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, recently turned over six outdoor storage facilities for grains and two computer software to farmers' cooperatives in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya.

According to Arnel Ramir M. Apaga, Director I of the planning and evaluation department of BPRE and Donald V. Mateo, BPRE area coordinator in Region II and CAR, six units of local plastic enclosures were given to the Nueva Vizcaya Alay Kapwa Multi-Purpose Cooperative (NVAKMPCO), Nueva Vizcaya Seed Growers Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Inc., and the Kasibu Farmers Development Cooperative (KAFDECO).

The NVAKMPCO, a progressive cooperative with 6,538 members and consolidated assets of around P148 million, was also chosen by BPRE to pilot-test two computer softwares developed by the bureau. These include the Warehouse Stock Inventory and Loss Assessment Software and the Feasibility Study Software.

Francisco A. Aquino Jr., president of NVAKMPCO, said that the former will serve as guide in their grains trading operations while the latter software will help the cooperative in most of their businesses that include lending; general merchandising; agri-input, appliances, and communications device trading.

Meanwhile, Apaga believes that if this pilot test in Nueva Vizcaya turns out successful, it shall pave the way to more farmers' cooperatives nationwide benefitting from these BPRE-designed software.