The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) has delivered under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Mechanization Program a total of 26,412 units of various agricultural equipment, benefiting 6,385 farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) and 368 local government units (LGUs), whose members aggregate to almost 1 million farmers.

The said number of units were delivered from mid-2020 to March 3, 2024. Meanwhile, the total number of procured agricultural equipment totaled 28,817 from the start of the RCEF-Mechanization Program in mid-2019 to March 3, 2024.

This means PHilMech has achieved a 91.6% delivery rate for the machines it procured under the program.

Also, PHilMech has obligated a total of P24.9 billion in funds for the procurement of 28,817 agricultural equipment made up of 14,713 units of land preparation machines; 4,284 units of crop establishment technologies; 8,210 harvesting and threshing equipment; 768 drying technologies; and 842 milling equipment.

“PHilMech has gone a long way in procuring and distributing farm machines to qualified FCAs and LGUs under the six-year RCEF-Mechanization Program. Equally important is PHilMech’s training and capacitation of the FCAs and LGUs that received farm equipment, so they will be able to benefit from the technologies given to them, and operate these for many years,” said PHilMech Director IV and Scientist IV Dr. Dionisio G. Alvindia.

“We at PHilMech intend to finish distributing at least P30 billion worth of farm machines under the RCEF Mechanization Program. These efforts are part of our commitment to ensure food security in the country which is part of the eight-point socioeconomic agenda of the government. Hatid ng PHilMech ang Modernong Pagsasaka para sa Masaganang Bagong Pilipinas,” he emphasized.

Under RA 11203, PHilMech gets P5 billion annually from 2019 to 2024 to distribute various agricultural equipment to qualified FCAs and LGUs. The P5 billion is sourced from tariffs applied on rice imports. All the agricultural equipment distributed by PHilMech under the RCEF-Mechanization Program are in-kind or grants or are at no cost to qualified FCAs and LGUs nationwide.