Rice mechanization OKd

The Agriculture Department has approved a six-year, P16-billion rice mechanization program that will increase production of the crop by as much as 10 percent annually.

The Philippine Center for Post-Harvest Development and Mechanization said it would implement the program from 2011 to 2016 to modernize the postharvest and mechanization processes on a large-scale basis.

“PhilMech is supporting [Agriculture] Secretary Proceso Alcala in attaining self-sufficiency in rice production, especially now that climate change and rising world food prices are expected to make an impact on world food supply,” center director Ricardo Cachuela told reporters in a briefing Tuesday.

Mechanization and postharvest will be given second priority after irrigation under the government’s rice program.

The government plans to spend P9.5 billion for farm mechanization, P2.8 billion for drying, P3.2 billion for rice milling that will include provisions of a soft loan and the balance for project management.

The Agriculture Department will release P1 billion this year for the procurement of 4,000 units of various postharvest machineries. The program would have procured and distributed as much as 7,000 postharvest units and 90,000 units of on-farm machineries by 2016.

In addition, farmer associations, organizations and cooperatives will be given a chance to own their own farm machineries through a financing scheme in which 70 percent of the cost will be shouldered by the government.

The center will team up with farmer groups in the deployment of thousands of primary farm equipment like hand tractors, four-wheel tractors and threshers. The secondary machineries include seed cleaners, rice reaper, drum seeder, mini combine harvester and combine harvester.

Research conducted by the postharvest center shows that the mechanization level in the Philippines averaged just 0.52 horsepower per hectare.

The Philippines still ranks low among Asian countries in terms of overall agricultural mechanization. Japan tops Asian countries in farm mechanization with 7.0 hp; South Korea, 4.11 hp; China 3.88 hp; Pakistan, 1.02 hp; India 1.0 hp; Thailand, 0.79 hp; and Iran, 0.70 hp.

“The Philippines still has a lot of catching up to do in agricultural mechanization and postharvest. This program will help boost our level of mechanization and hopefully encourage the youth to engage in farming,” said Cachuela. –Othel V. Campos, Manila Standard Today