Give Us Machines We Need! Phil. Mechanization Program Doesn’t Meet Farmers Needs

Every year, the Bureau of Soil and Water Management (BSWM) procures and distributes Electric-Powered Composting Machines costing over P1-M and using up a budget of almost P3-B annually.
Farmers have not actually asked for these Electric Composting Machines because it is so expensive to operate just to produce a few kilos of compost.
In fact, Regional Offices of the Department of Agriculture face difficulty in finding recipients for this impractical equipment.
Yet, Filipino farmers have a hard time accessing small equipment that costs much less but which they actually need in the farms to improve their production.
The biggest challenge which I faced in the Sorghum and Soybeans Development Program is the absence of appropriate equipment and machinery specially designed for these crops.
Until today, we have to use manual labor in harvesting both our Sorghum and Soybeans because the harvesters available for these two crops were designed for big plantations.
To thresh Sorghum and Soybeans, we have been using the “Double Drum” Rice Thresher which serves the purpose but not as efficient as the equipment intended for these two crops.
For the cleaning of the Sorghum grains, I had to buy a Sorghum Debearding Machine from overseas which involved a considerable sum.
Even a grains and seed color and size sorter has to be sourced from other countries.
Right now, I am linking up with a Japan-based Filipino farmer and used equipment dealer, Jun Ocaba, to be able to acquire a Soybeans thresher, skinny-tire mini-furrower and Sorghum Silage harvester.
Philippine Agriculture is ages behind farm mechanization with many farmers innovating and making their own equipment, including a motorcycle which had been converted into a mini-furrower.
The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech), an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture whose mandate is to design and develop equipment and machinery for the country’s agriculture and fisheries sector, had been turned into a mere procurement agency, especially in the implementation of the mechanization program of the rice industry under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).
There is a ray of hope, however, as the DA, under Sec. Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr., is now organizing the country’s private fabricators and inventors to take the lead in the design, development and manufacture of machinery and equipment actually needed by the farmers.
It may be a bit late but a private-sector led Mechanization Program is what is needed to boost agricultural productivity in the country.
These fabricators and inventors, however, must be provided the needed funding support for them to work.
#FarmingIsCommonSense!