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

NEWS STORIES

PHilMech, AMCC develop cassava dryer
by Vladimir B. Caliguiran (November 11, 2011)
Cassava farmers will no longer worry on drying their produce because PHilMech and Agricomponent Machinery and Construction Corporation (AMCC) is developing a mechanical dryer for granulated cassava.


PHilMech Director Ricardo L. Cachuela and AMCC President Samuel B. Cariño signed a Memorandum of Agreement for the project 'Development of a Drying System for Granulated Cassava for Animal Feed Ingredient'.


Earlier on, the AMCC fabricated the prototype cassava dryer (100-kg/hour output) based on the design specifications provided by PHilMech. .


A one-ton capacity commercial dryer is also being fabricated to undergo pilot testing early next year. The test will assess its performance and efficiency before its full commercialization..


The country has an average of 2M metric tons of cassava produced every year according to Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Agricultural Statistics data. .


Granulated dried cassava is sold to feed milling companies as ingredient in the production of livestock feeds. At present, sun drying is the common way of dehydrating cassava..


The cassava mechanical dryer is an offshoot to sustain the growth of the emerging cassava industry in the Philippines. PHilMech tapped the assistance of the private sector in this project to meet the urgent needs of the cassava industry stakeholders..



The AMCC is a 100 percent Filipino-owned corporation based in Cauayan City, Isabela. They have been manufacturing farm machineries for more than a decade. The company is also an accredited manufacturer of PHilMech's Multi-fuel Biomass Furnace and Biomass-fed Flatbed dryer.