MUÑOZ, Nueva Ecija (April 24)—The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) here is set to distribute a P5 billion worth of farm machinery under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund mechanization program of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
The DA said the 5,098 farm machinery consists of 2,574 pieces of farm machines for land preparation like four-wheel tractors and one-hand tractors and attachments like tillers totaling P1.7 billion.
It said another 496 farm machinery will be for crop establishment like transplanters and seeders worth P500 million and 2,028 for post-harvest equipment mechanical harvesters, thrashers and milling machines worth P2.8 billion.
For 2019 and 2020, there were nearly 680,000 farmer beneficiaries who have benefited from the farm machine distribution under the program, the DA said.
PhilMech said the mechanization program benefited 268,363 farmers belonging to 1,698 farmer cooperatives and associations (FCAs) in 2019 and another 411,123 from 2,106 FCAs covering 2020.
This brings to 679,486 the total number of farmers from 3,804 FCAs who benefited from the first two years of the program. LCD