Republic of the Philippines
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Philippine Center for Postharvest
Development and Mechanization
CLSU Compound, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija

NEWS STORIES

Php20M Postharvest Machinery distributed in Nueva Vizcaya
by Mark Dheniel A. Gutierrez (September 30, 2022)
A total of Php20 million worth of agricultural postharvest machinery were distributed to two model Farmers Cooperatives and Associations (FCA) during the turn-over ceremony of Rice Processing System (RPS) in Nueva Vizcaya in September 28.

The St. Vincent Parish Multi-purpose Cooperative from Dupax Del Sur and Magapuy Farmers Multi-purpose Cooperative from Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya benefited from this Php20 million budget.

The machinery distribution is under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Mechanization Program spearheaded by the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech). The project is contributory to RCEF’s goals of curbing postharvest losses among farmers’ produce and increasing farmers’ income through agro-enterprises.

PHilMech Director IV Dionisio G. Alvindia challenged each cooperative to properly use the machine grant and be good stewards of the machine. He assured them that despite the limited budget of the program, PHilMech will provide additional machinery that will help their cooperative perform well. He also stated that he would supply a furnace to serve as heating source of the dryers in order to reduce drying costs.

Each RPS 1 includes two units of six-toner recirculating dryer and one unit of multi-stage rice mill with 1.5 tons per hour capacity.

“Nagpapasalamat po kame sa PHilMech para sa mga makinaryang aming natanggap malaki po ang maitutulong nito sa aming samahan kaya makakasiguro po kayo na iingatan at aalagaan namin ang mga ito upang mapakinabangan sa mahabang panahon” (We are grateful to PHilMech because they gave us agricultural machinery. These will help us to improve the performance of our association and we assure them to take the responsibility in order to use them for a long time) said Jeremy Caste?eda, Chairman of St. Vincent Parish Multi-purpose Cooperatives.

Municipal agriculturists, FCA members and other government officials were present during the turn-over ceremony.