PhilMech to Deliver Production Equipment to Farmers This Year

The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) is looking to turn over production equipment to farmers this year.

This comes as PhilMech implements the mechanization part of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) to support the food sovereignty targets and food self-sufficiency objectives of the new Marcos Jr. administration.

PhilMech’s Executive Director Dionisio Alvinda mentioned that the agency plans on completing the deliveries of around 20,000 of equipment from 2019 to 2021.

“For production, we still have 593 technologies for land preparation and crop establishment remaining for distribution. For post-harvest, there are still 24. All in all, 617 out of 20,396 technologies are still up for distribution,” says Alvinda.

For the 2019 to 2021 allocation of ₱15 billion worth of farm machines, PhilMech has done 97% of the delivery.

For the budget of RCEF for this year, PhilMech is looking at authenticating around 1,000 beneficiaries under the RCEF Mechanization Program.

PhilMech’s Facility Management and Field Operations Division Chief Joel Dator has mentioned that the list of beneficiaries would include local government units (LGUs) and farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs).

“We are also targeting to deliver production technologies this year but the machines for the establishment of postharvest facilities, particularly milling and drying facilities, may spill over the first quarter of 2023 since these technologies require construction and various testing to ensure that these will be functional/operational,” says Alvinda.

According to the agency, they are looking to give more during and rice processing equipment which will be funded by the ₱5 billion budget allocated under the RCEF for 2022.

The PhilMech-Bids and Award Committee began the procurement process part for the ₱5 billion budget for farm equipment last month.

Source: Philstar