Romblon broom making boosted by new machine

Broom makers in San Agustin, Romblon, have reason to be happy these days.

They do not have to worry anymore about the molds that attack their raw materials in making brooms even during the rainy season.

The reason: A furnace-type dryer has been provided the town’s Tiger Grass Processing Facility (TGPF), thanks to the Los Baños-based Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI), a DOST agency.

Using the equipment, the broom makers can now thoroughly dry their tiger grass, locally called "luway," reported FPRDI’s Rizalina Araral.

Funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and supported by the Romblon Provincial Science and Technology Center (PSTC), the Tiger Grass Processing Facility is a project of the local government for the San Agustin, Romblon Entre-Workers Cooperative (SAREW-C).

"The construction of the 12-cubic-meter capacity tiger grass panicle dryer is good news to our local broom makers. They can now come up with better quality brooms and meet the demands of a wider market," said Bilshan Servañez, DOST-PSTC officer.

The FPRDI technical team that assisted in the SAREW-C project was composed of forester Robert Natividad, engineers Juanito Jimenez and Ruben Zamora, and Teodoro Ebron. – RAF