By James Emmanuel Santua & Raxenn Ayesha Lachica
The Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund aims to maintain the country's food security while also making the agriculture industry more efficient and competitive in the global scale.
The RCEF has an annual budget of P10 billion, half of which goes to its Mechanization Program, or the utilization and distribution of appropriate production and postproduction mechanization technology to farmers groups and associations.
In an interview with the Manila Standard, Dr. Rodolfo P. Estigoy, a former Chief Science Research Specialist of the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech), said that competitiveness enhancement in the industry can be achieved by providing machinery that can lower production costs and postharvest losses.
Helen Calica, Chief of PhilMech's Technology Management and Training Division, said that part of the distribution of machinery involves training programs to ensure that machinery beneficiaries work at their best on proper operation and maintenance.
Estigoy, who served PhilMech for 30 years, enumerated and explained the process of production and post production along with the machineries used for every stage.
Tractors for Land Preparation
In rice farming, especially when seeds are sown, the farm should be flat and well prepared, which is the main purpose of land preparation machineries.
“Before planting, land preparation ensures that the field is prepared for planting. The farm machines that we will use here are the tractors,” said Estigoy.
Tractors are the ones that plow, harrow, and flatten the land. This is the time when the weeds in the soil have been incorporated, they have decomposed so that they can be used as fertilizer again for the next crop.
Seeders and Transplanters for Crop Establishment
Crop establishment begins when it is time to plant the seed. Two methods can be used for seeding, first is the direct seeding where seeds can be sown manually or mechanically. Secondly, the method called transplanting is the process of transferring a fully developed seedling and replanting it in a permanent place for the growth season, the science researcher explained.
A seeder is a tool that sows seeds for crops by burying them in a particular depth in the soil. For direct seeding, a manual seeder and a precision seeder can be utilized. Precision seeding entails planting seed with proper spacing and depth.
“The precision seeders are also attached to the tractor. But there are also manual seeders. They both have the same purpose but of course when you use the machine, it works more efficiently,” he added.
For transplanting, when seeds are grown, it will be pulled to be put in a machine called a mechanical transplanter.
“A mechanical transplanter plants the seedlings more efficiently than the manual planter. A study stated that it will save the farmer almost a thousand pesos per hectare of his farm if he uses a rice mechanical transplanter,” said Estigoy.
Combine Harvester
A combine harvester is a multipurpose equipment intended to harvest crops effectively. It integrates two different processes into a single one: harvesting and threshing.
As per research, farming mechanization lowers the cost per kilo of rice produced, according to Estigoy. Farmers can save up to P4,400 per hectare by employing a combine harvester.
“Farmers will reap the benefits in the long term. First and foremost, our study has shown that using technology increases production, not just in the harvest but also in the farmer’s overall productivity. For example, if you utilize machinery, your costs will be lesser, and your post-harvest losses will be lesser,” he stated.
Training on Farm Mechanization
Calica said that Technology Management and Training Division of PhilMech offers their other interventions and assistance such as those from their regular programs—the training courses for the technologies developed and commercialized by the agency.
The training courses aim to create awareness and enhance the knowledge and skills of the industry stakeholders, and develop a core of subject matter specialists on mechanization and postharvest technologies developed by PhilMech.
She added: “Our targets are the intermediaries, agricultural extension services from other agencies [and] farmer leaders as well,”.
For its special projects in support to the RCEF — rice mechanization component, the farmer cooperatives and associations machinery beneficiaries’ (operators, and farmer leaders/officers), technical staff of LGUs and other agencies are the target recipients of the training programs.
For Calica, the training provided by the PhilMech under RCEF ensures the “maximum efficiency” and “the effective operation and maintenance procedures” of the agricultural machinery provided by the government for farmers.
“Through the technical capability enhancement being conducted by PHilMech – TMTD under RCEF, the trained participants or the machinery beneficiaries can apply their learning on the proper operation and maintenance of the machinery and maximize the utilization of the said rice farm machinery and equipment granted to them.”
Calica also said that the purpose of training and extension on mechanization is to accelerate the promotion among the industry stakeholders the use of efficient and cost reducing rice mechanization interventions.
For Estigoy, these programs of the RCEF will eventually improve the competitiveness of the Philippines’ rice sector with that of the country’s neighbors in Southeast Asia by reducing the cost of production and improving farm productivity.