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

NEWS STORIES

Cachuela leads national confab on grains postproduction
by Gladys May C. Zamora (December 8, 2009)
"Spend the money of the Filipinos in the technology designed and made by the Filipinos", shares BPRE Executive Director Ricardo L. Cachuela who represented Agriculture Secretary Atty. Arthur C. Yap during the 6th National Grains Postproduction Conference at the Bohol Plaza, Dauis, Bohol on November 25-27, 2009.

Cachuela shared the status of the government`s grains postproduction program in the country during the plenary session. He also cited the efficiency of the BPRE`s flatbed dryer in palay and corn drying compared to the traditional highway drying which incurred huge losses.

Meanwhile, farmers representative from Iloilo, Julita Vilaluna, thanked BPRE for the provision of the flatbed dryer. According to her, the technology helped them increase the income of the small farmers in their province.

Vilaluna also shared to the participants that their association replaced the perforated screen of the flatbed dryer into bamboo screen to continuously use the technology. The said move of the organization was commended by Cachuela.

Among the topics discussed during the conference include the production and postproduction technologies, linking farmers to market, postharvest technologies and grain quality standards. The resource speakers came from NFA, KOICA, NABCOR, FLGC III, UPLB, and BPRE.

Dr. Dante B. de Padua, part-time professor at the University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) and known as the father of the postharvest technology synthesized the three-day conference and commended researchers who developed technologies and systems to improve the postharvest industry. "Layman don`t know how to assess grains quality, thanks to the machine vision of Dr. Bulaong and other postharvest technologies offered to our farmers," he said.

The conference was attended by representatives from the different farmer`s association nationwide, extension workers from different state colleges and universities (SCUs) and Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Units (DA-RFUs).

With the theme `Linking Farmers to Market: Challenges and Opportunities`, the event was also graced by Bohol Governor Erico Aumentado and DA-RFU VII Regional Executive Director Ricardo Oblena.

The conference was organized by PRPC, with the assistance of BPRE, Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), National Food Authority (NFA), UPLB, National Agricultural and Fishery Council (NAFC), and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). It was made possible with the Corn Development Fund, GMA-Rice, GMA-Corn, GrainPro, SUKI Trading, Agri-component Corporation, and P.I. Farm products.