PHilMech encourages onion farmers to mechanize

MANILA, Philippines — Amid a shortage in suppply,  the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) is encouraging onion farmers to mechanize their operations by primarily utilizing the agency’s Multi-Row Onion Mechanical Seeder (MROS).

PHilMech said the MROS it developed is already commercially available and has 10 or 12 rows.

The 12 row MROS was developed prior the COVID-19 pandemic and was eventually pushed for commercialization for onion farmers who wanted a higher planting density for onions and capabilities for bed forming.

PHilMech-Postharvest Systems and Analysis Department (PHSAD) science research specialist I Cecilia Antolin said one of the biggest benefits of utilizing the MROS is reduction of the labor requirement for sowing onion seeds, or from a high of 42 to as low as one using the MROS.

“The labor cost of onion farming not using the MROS is about 40 percent of the cost of production,”  she said.

The MROS can sow onion seeds with uniform distance and with higher density, assuring more uniform growth and development of onions, assuring better harvest in terms of quantity and quality.

It is attached to a hand tractor or a small four-wheel tractor, which allows faster operation.

The 10-row MROS can cover one hectare in two hours and 55 minutes without bed forming.

The 12-row MROS can cover one hectare in two hours and eight minutes including bed forming.

Without the MROS, the sowing of onion seeds by up to 42 workers in one hectare can take more than eight hours.

Based on field evaluation by PHilMech, the use of the MROS ensures a higher survival rate for the onion seeds, as these are covered uniformly by soil during the sowing process.

On the other hand, manual labor cannot assure uniform sowing of the seeds, which can result in uneven plant development and harvests of matured onions of varying sizes.

PHilMech  logged a 72-percent field efficiency for the MROS, which is higher than the 60-percent minimum standard set by the Philippine Agricultural Engineering Standards.

The MROS can also be used to sow the seeds of pechay (75.47-percent efficiency rate); mustard (80.64-percent efficiency rate); upland kangkong (80.94-percent efficiency rate); radish (75.47-percent efficiency rate).

When it comes to fuel efficiency, the MROS consumes one to 1.2 liters per hour of operation.

Antolin said the 10- and 12-row MROS is currently manufactured locally and is the only one of its kind available in the domestic market.

Meanwhile, Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) executive director Jayson Cainglet said the government must intervene post-farmgate up to the retail stage instead of importing onions.

“Instead of contemplating on new onion imports that will only result in depressed farmgate prices of onions, with the onset of the harvest season, the Department of Agriculture (DA) should rather concentrate on the huge gap between farmgate prices and retail prices of onions,” he said.

“Another round of onion imports will not guarantee reduced retail prices if the DA will remain useless in addressing the gap between the farmgate and retail prices,” Cainglet said.

SINAG had previously suggested to the DA to import as much as 7.5 million kilos of white onions as early as October amid the shortage of the commodity.

Based on DA’s monitoring in production areas, farmgate prices range from P330 to P400 per kilogram.

Meanwhile, the latest Bantay Presyo data of the agency showed the price of local red onions in Metro Manila ranges between P280 and P650 per kilogram and white onions at P400 to P600 per kg.

The farmgate and retail prices were still way above the P250 per kilo suggested retail price set by the DA in December until last week.

SINAG said the farmgate price is not commensurate to the prevailing retail price of onions.

“At its peak, farmgate price is only between P250-P300 per kilo; hence retail prices should have not exceeded P400 per kilo at no point in time,” Cainglet said.

“Our onion farmers are more than aware that the current good prices of onions at the farm level are being used to justify the high retail prices of onions,” he said.

In an executive meeting last week, the DA recommended the importation of 22,000 metric tons (MT) of  red and white onions by February as prices continue to rise.

The recommended volume to be imported was based on the country’s monthly average demand for onions.

The one-month consumption figure is higher than the expected harvest of 19,000 MT this month.