The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) inaugurated a P56.5-million rice mill in Piddig, Ilocos Norte, designed to boost the income of close to 1,000 farmers by up to 30 percent.
“This mill will increase the rice recovery from palay to 65 percent, higher by 7 percentage points compared to the national average of 58 percent. And that means a lot to increasing farmers’ incomes,” said PhilMech director Dionisio Alvindia.
The state-of-the-art multi-stage rice mill is part of a larger P71-million investment in postharvest facilities for the Piddig Basi Multipurpose Cooperative, benefiting its nearly 1,100 members who manage 1,400 hectares of rice lands.
The facility includes two recirculating dryers with a capacity of 12 tons each and other equipment. The cooperative previously received a rice combine harvester valued at P1.8 million. The mill is equipped to process 3 metric tons of palay per hour, producing 930 50-kilo bags of rice during an 8-hour run.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. stressed the importance of machinery and improved postharvest facilities in achieving the government’s goals of increasing food production, ensuring food security and reducing rice importation.
“By deploying better post-harvest facilities like dryers, silos, and rice mills, we can significantly reduce wastage that would help achieve our trifecta goals of increasing farmers’ incomes, providing consumers with more affordable food choices and preserving foreign exchange by reducing food imports,” he said.
PhilMech administers half of the P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) for farm mechanization with 146 rice mills handed over to farmer cooperatives and associations nationwide.
