Published April 1, 2021, 1:00 PM
The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) is now preparing for next month’s bidding of P5-billion worth of farm machineries to be funded by Rice Tariffication Law’s (RTL) Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).
In a briefing, PHilMech Executive Director Baldwin G. Jallorina Jr. told reporters that the agency wants to avoid another delay when it comes to the distribution of rice farm machineries under RCEF.
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That is why PhilMech is targeting to conduct this April the bidding and acquisition of the next batch of farm machines worth P5 billion.
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But thanks to Rice Tariffication Law’s (RTL) Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), PhilMech is now in the process of distributing P2 billion worth of farm machineries to farmer cooperatives and associations (FCAs) across the country.
The RTL or Republic Act 11203 allocates P5 billion to PHilMech annually for the distribution of various farm machines at no cost to qualified FCAs. This should be inclusive of the training of the farmer-beneficiaries on how to manage and maintain their machines.
The P5 billion will be sourced from the tariffs on rice imports deposited to RCEF, which will be automatically injected with P10-billion funding from 2019 to 2024.
Photo by Timur Kozmenko on Unsplash
Philmech Director for Applied Communications Division Aldrin Badua said that in terms of farm productivity, the government is still aiming to boost the country’s mechanization level from 2.31 horsepower per hectare to 3.31 horsepower per hectare.
“In our calculation, after six years [of Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund or RCEF], there will be more or less additional 1 horsepower per hectare [in rice production] by 2024,” Badua said in a virtual briefing Wednesday.
With higher farm productivity, he said production cost is also poised to go down from P12.41 per kilogram (/kg) to P9/kg.
At present,, the Philippines lags behind other rice producing countries in farm productivity with an agriculture mechanization level of only 2.1 horsepower per hectare. This means that more than 16 percent of the farmers’ total production goes to waste due to post-harvest losses.