The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) is pushing for the development of the country’s local farm machine industry saying the Philippines cannot rely solely on imported farm equipment.
The agency is optimistic about the program to improve manufacturing capabilities and quality of local farm machinery products, with the establishment of the Agricultural Mechanization Design and Prototyping Center (AMDPC) at its headquarters in Munoz, Nueva Ecija.
Dionisio Alvindia, PhilMech executive director, said the facility is being built in collaboration with the Korea International Cooperation Agency, Korea Institute for Development Strategy and the Korea Agricultural Machinery Cooperative.
The project to establish the AMDPC and the dispatch of South Korean experts and capacity-building efforts for PhilMech will cost a total of $5.7 million (P298.25 million).
AMDPC’s establishment alone is pegged at $3.6 million (P188.37 million) and will house state-of-the-art design and prototyping equipment and tools to develop farm machine parts and components.
“We should not rely solely with importation of machines and equipment and we should empower our local manufacturing industry as mandated in the Agricultural and Fisheries Mechanization Law. Establishing shops for repair and maintenance should be part of the program to cater for the repair of machines,” Alvindia said.
PhilMech said the project will include the fabrication of farm machinery parts in partnership with local farm machine manufacturers.
So far, PhilMech has licensed local companies to manufacture the machines and technologies it has designed or developed. These are ACT (Machineries and Metalcraft) Corp.; Agricomp Machineries and Construction Corp.; ARFAST Inc.; Diordan Construction; REB-Greentech Systems Enterprises; and Machine systems Corp.
Among the farm machines PhilMech has licensed for local manufacture are compact corn mill, hygienic fermentary box, impeller mill for brown rice, impeller rice mill combo and 12-row onion mechanical seeder.
The agency is also in the final stages of developing its fluidized bed dryer primarily for drying palay.
PhilMech is the government agency taking the lead in the country’s agricultural and fishery mechanization programs by developing protocols and processes.
Source: https://malaya.com.ph/news_business/philmech-pushes-for-local-development-of-farm-machineries/
