MANILA -- As the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law starts Tuesday, the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) said it will prioritize low production areas, consisting of some 1,212 municipalities in 57 provinces identified by the Department of Agriculture (DA) Rice Roadmap.
PhilMech Deputy Director Raul Paz, in a briefing, said farm mechanization aims to lower postharvest production losses -- from drying to milling.
A study by PhilMech in 2010 showed that inefficient drying, which uses roads and pavements remain a prevalent practice among farming communities, resulting in high postharvest losses in the rice value chain, while inefficient milling contributed another 5.52 percent.
Other causes were from threshing (2.18 percent), drying (5.9 percent), harvesting (2.03 percent), piling (0.08 percent), and storage (0.8 percent).
With proper intervention in farm mechanization to address the issues related to postharvest losses, Paz said, the cost of palay production in the country can be reduced to PHP10 to PHP11 per kilogram (kg) from PHP12.72.
The Rice Tariffication Law allocates PHP10 billion per year of Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), of which PHP5 billion will go to PhilMech for farm mechanization to improve and increase production of rice by Filipino farmers to make them more competitive as its Southeast Asian neighbors.
Paz said PhilMech will distribute 200 sets of farm machines per year which costs around PHP20 million per set for six years in the prioritized low rice producing municipalities in the country.
The distribution will be late this year or early next year as they still need to validate the list of farmer organizations/cooperatives who are the beneficiaries of the equipment.
Paz said the procurement of farm machineries will start in August, which include transplanters and four-wheeled tractors, to be sourced from domestic manufacturers.
The Rice Tariffication Law, signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in February 14, 2019, seeks to liberalize the importation of rice. It is also expected to lower retail prices of the staple food and at the same time lower inflation by 0.5 percentage to 0.7 percentage points this year. (PNA)
