ILOILO CITY -- The Department of Agriculture (DA) in Region 6 has earmarked PHP100 million for the implementation of the rice mechanization program in Western Visayas this year.
The fund is intended to acquire farm mechanical tools aimed at reducing labor cost, prevent post-harvest losses and improve productivity. The farm machineries will be provided free to farmers associations or cooperatives.
On Friday, as part of the Makina Saka/Expo 2017, a farm demonstration was conducted for land preparation, transplanting and irrigation mechanical tools. It was held at the Western Visayas Integrated Agricultural Research Center (WESVIARC) in Hamungaya, Jaro.
"Through this we would show comparison between manual and mechanized farming," said Engr. Jane Brazas, chief of the DA 6 Regional Agricultural Engineering Division (RAED).
The machinery included tractors for land preparation, riding type and walk behind transplanters and the solar powered irrigation and boom sprayer.
The riding type transplanter can cover three to five hectares a day, while one to two hectares daily for the walk behind transplanter. Its work is equivalent to that of 20 persons.
Brazas said that DA has provided two riding type transplanters and 20 units of walk behind transplanters to farmer associations in Western Visayas last year.
Meantime, nine solar-powered irrigation system will be installed in the region next year. A design for the project is already available and they hope to start in early 2018.
Just last week, Secretary Emmanuel Piñol released to farmers PHP34.470 million worth of farm machineries to various farmer associations in the region. These included 10 units of mini four-wheel tractor, 55 units of thresher, 29 units of hand tractor with implements, three units each of mechanical reaper and hammer mill, 81 units of pump and engine set, two transplanter ride-on type and five units of corn sheller.
Brazas emphasized that all farm mechanized tools that are provided to farmer associations or cooperatives are closely monitored. A deed of conditional donation is signed stating that the donation will be pulled out once it is validated that the machinery is not fully utilized.
A policy is also drafted that will provide a system such as the rental for the utilization and the maintenance of the equipment.
Members of the associations are asked to sign if indeed they have availed of the services.
Piñol, who is currently here for the three-day expo, stressed that mechanization is important to improve the productivity of farmers. (PNA)
