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

NEWS STORIES

Dr. Alvindia sets PHilMech new directions
by Ruben de Guzman (October 12, 2016)
The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) headed by its new director, Dr. Dionisio G. Alvindia, held a press conference at PHilMech Liaison Office, ATI Bldg, in Diliman, Quezon City last September 29, 2016. It was the first appearance of Dr. Alvindia to the press since he took over the leadership of PHilMech since July 1, 2016 through Special Order No. 651 issued by the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture Emmanuel Piñol.

Dr. Alvindia presented the agency plans and priorities to align with the targets and goals of the new administration.

He said, “PHilMech aims to develop and commercialize farming technologies that are appropriate for small farmers and agriculture cooperatives. Inputs from the stakeholders will be used by the agency to create an integrated Research, Development and Extension (RDE) agenda for postharvest and mechanization on farm, fisheries and food processing development. Stakeholder-driven RDE should result in more innovations by PHilMech’s highly-talented scientists, engineers and experts”.

“We will continue the “AgrInnovation” program spearheaded by Engr. Bingabing to address the increasing needs of localized machinery and technologies in our country. We will just add something we forgot to do, immersion with our stakeholders,” he added.

He also emphasized PHilMech’s assistance to the mango, banana and other fruit growers in the country by helping them to preserve their harvest in an organic way to meet the export requirements for other countries. The agency is now working initially with Mindanao farmers to show them the benefits of the developed technology like the Bio-Control Agents (BCA) in treating the fungal contamination in fruits like banana.

Dr. Alvindia emphasized that the PHilMech directions would be more zealous in giving value to government funds in implementing the projects of the agency..

The press conference was attended by media people from different news agencies like Noon Time Balita, Radyo Agila, Business World, Business Mirror, Philippine News Agency, Manila Star Philippine Star, Malaya, Brigada News FM, Radio Corporation of the Philippines, UNTV, Dyaryong Tagalog, among others.