PhilMech to complete delivery of equipment to farmers

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) is eyeing to deliver production equipment to farmer beneficiaries within the year.

This as it steps up the implementation of the mechanization component of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) to support the food self-sufficiency and food sovereignty goals of the new administration.

In a virtual briefing, PhilMech executive director Dionisio Alvindia assured that the agency would complete the delivery of the backlog from the over 20,000 equipment allocated for 2019 to 2021.

“For production, we still have 593 technologies for land preparation and crop establishment remaining for distribution. For post-harvest, there are still 24. All in all, 617 out of 20,396 technologies are still up for distribution,” he said.

So far, PhilMech has achieved a 97 percent delivery rate for farm machines worth P15 billion for the 2019-2021 allocation.

For the RCEF budget this year, PhilMech is validating about 1,000 beneficiaries identified to be qualified under the RCEF Mechanization Program.

PhilMech facility management and field operations division chief Joel Dator said these beneficiaries include farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) and local government units (LGUs) that are new in the list and those that have yet to receive post-harvest facilities.

In terms of number of equipment, Dator said farm machineries could reach over 2,000 units.

The agency will provide rice processing and drying equipment to more qualified FCAs and LGUs, and the acquisition of the processing and drying facilities will be included in the P5-billion allocation under RCEF for 2022.

“We are also targeting to deliver production technologies with this year but the machines for the establishment of postharvest facilities, particularly milling and drying facilities, may spill over the first quarter of 2023 since these technologies require construction and various testing to ensure that these will be functional/operational,” Alvindia said.

The PhilMech-Bids and Award Committee already started last month the procurement process for the batch of farm machines covered by the P5-billion budget.

Under the Rice Tariffication Law or RA 11203, P10 billion will be allocated annually for the RCEF from 2019 to 2024, P5 billion of which will be used for the distribution of farm machines at no cost to qualified FCAs.

The distribution of drying and milling facilities will allow farmers to have a complete value chain, from planting to selling milled rice.

On top of providing farm technologies, PHilMech also capacitates the beneficiaries of the RCEF-Mechanization program by providing them training in the operation and maintenance of farm machines and operating a cooperative like a business enterprise.

Alvindia said the role of PhilMech is aligned with the ambition of President Marcos – also concurrent Agriculture chief – on food productivity.

“Overall, we at PhilMech re-commit to sustain our programs, projects and initiatives to modernize the country’s agriculture sector, because we believe that technological solutions are key to making farmers attain higher productivity, and better harvests and incomes,” he said.