The Regional Development Council of Region I passed a board resolution encouraging all concerned government agencies to patronize and promote the use of the portable solar dryer (Portasol) as a post-harvest facility and solution to drying palay and other crops without using the Manila-North Road.
“It is necessary to address the challenges faced by the region [given] the insufficient numbers of post-harvest facilities which aggravate the practice of drying of palay on the pavements of national roads and highways, which also causes billions of pesos in losses and the ‘Portasol’ is timely on achieving what the country needs now,” said RDC 1 vice chairperson Nestor Rillon who also serves also as the National Economic Development Authority regional director for Ilocos Region.
For decades, no significant solution has been made to address the problem of poor post-harvest system in the country. The stretches of the national highways particularly reveal the primitive ways of post-harvest drying system despite the ban on drying of palay and other farm produce along the national highways by the Department of Public Works and Highways through Department Order No. 41 s. 2013.
In a statement, inventor Francisco “Popoy” Pagayon said Portasol, short for portable solar dryer, has been designed to help farmers dry palay, corn, high-value crops, fish and others.
Pagayon said high fines should be slapped against big rice dealers who were using the road stretches for their own interest. “Perhaps, if we can put high fines to penalize them per square meter of roads and national highways used, instead of just P1,000, we can stop yearly losses and this dangerous practice,” Pagayon said.
Motorists complain against the practice because it presents dangerous road hazards.
“These lapses will also easily aggravate our rice farmers because they too do not have drying facilities and have no choice but to sell their palay at a lower price to big rice dealers,” he said.
In a study, the Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extension under the Department of Agriculture reveals that the country loses P15 billion worth of harvests each year due to the old and wasteful drying practices.
The Filipino Inventors Society Producer Cooperative presented the Multi-Purpose Grains Solar Speed Drying Trains Portasol technology to Ilocos Region in 2017 and reached the RDC-Region 1 in different levels of meetings. In February 2019, the board of RDC Region 1 fully evaluated the multi-purpose technology and officially signed and released RDC-1 Resolution No. 72-A series 2018 endorsing Portasol.
The copy of the RDC resolution was disseminated to all local government units and concerned agencies such as the DA, Department of Interior and Local Government and DPWH for their consideration.
“Many farmers from the regions gave good feedback on how the technology is helpful and most advantageous for them,” Rillon said. “The uneven economic and social development in the country is the cause of this malpractice and so we are now integrating this Filipino invention to check it.”
The RDC also encourages government agencies to coordinate with the Department of Science and Technology and team up with FISPC for the adoption of the Portasol technology to support regional and national development.
“Discipline and proper solution to the problem will allow the Philippine economy to grow without affecting our natural resources,” Pagayon said.
Pagayon is the president and chief executive of the Quezon City-based Filipino Inventors Society Producer Cooperative.
