AGREEMENT. PHilMech Director IV Dionisio G. Alvindia (second from left) and Mayor Christopher Daus of Laur, Nueva Ecija (center) sign a memorandum of agreement on Tuesday (Oct. 24, 2023) for the establishment of a rice processing systems (RPS) facility in the town that could help reduce farmers' postharvest losses. With a total cost of PHP18 million, the facility has two units of recirculating dryers with a 6-ton capacity per batch and one unit of multi-pass rice mill with a 1.5-ton milling capacity per hour. (Photo courtesy of DA-PhilMech)
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – Two more rice processing system facilities will be set up in Nueva Ecija province that can help farmers reduce post-harvest losses.
The projects are under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Mechanization Program of the Department of Agriculture.
The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) and the local government unit (LGU) of Laur signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on Tuesday for the putting up of the PHP18 million worth of rice processing system (RPS) 1 facility.
The facilities under RPS 1 include two units of recirculating dryers with a 6-ton capacity per batch and one unit of multi-pass rice mill with a 1.5-ton milling capacity per hour.
Mayor Christopher B. Daus thanked PhilMech for choosing Laur as one of the LGU recipients of the facility.
“Maraming salamat PhilMech. Nawa ay ito ay magsilbing daan upang ang bayan ng Laur ay makilala sa larangan ng agrikultura (Thank you very much PhilMech. May this serve as a way for the the town of Laur be known in the field of agriculture),” Daus said in his official social media account.
Last Oct. 19, PHilMech signed a MOA with the LGU of Science City of Muñoz, also Nueva Ecija, for the establishment of RPS 2 with a total cost of PHP61.4 million.
RPS 2 has a multi-pass rice mill that has a capacity of two to three tons of palay per hour, and two units of recirculating dryer with a capacity of 12 tons.
Under the agreement, the LGU will provide a warehouse as a counterpart for the provision of a free RPS facility.
The other LGU-RPS recipients in Nueva Ecija were the local government of Quezon, the city government of Cabanatuan and the provincial government of Nueva Ecija.
PHilMech Director IV Dionisio G. Alvindia said aside from reducing postharvest losses, the RPS aims to improve the quality of milled rice and make it available and accessible to farmers for rice processing services.
“The RPS is a state-of-the-art drying and milling facility that aims to produce quality milled rice and curb postharvest losses. It plays a vital role in attaining the potential benefits of mechanization by complementing the rice production technologies distributed during the first three years of the RCEF implementation,” Alvindia said in a statement. (PNA)
