Agriculture Assistant Secretary for Operations Engr. Arnel de Mesa met with members of the Technology Advice and Solutions from Korea (TASK) Expert Mission led by Mr. Dong Ho (Eric) Song of the Korea Agriculture Machinery Industry Cooperative (KAMICO) to discuss the implementation of the TASK Program for the Agricultural Machinery Industry in the Philippines at the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Quezon City, on July 29.
During the meeting Asec. De Mesa expressed appreciation for the continued cooperation of the Korean experts in the modernization agenda of the government.
“We thank you for partnering with us as we aim to increase production through mechanized and modern farm systems,” he said.
De Mesa stressed that DA will fully support the full implementation of the TASK Program to improve the capacities of the Philippine-manufacturing industry in product development, to meet global standards.
The project, to be funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Korea Institute of Advance Technology (KIAT), targets to transfer Korean agriculture machinery technology to support resolution of technical difficulties and assist machine improvement, process improvement, prototyping support for Philippine local agricultural machinery and smart-farm related companies.
Jointly implemented by the DA-Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech), and the Korea Association of Machinery Industry (KOAMI) and KAMICO, the project will provide technical coaching and consultations, and extend best practices knowledge to beneficiaries.
As part of the mission launch, 10 local manufacturing agri-machinery local companies will be selected to be supported by the TASK program. Initially, 20 Philippine-based companies were surveyed.
From July 26-29, 2022, the Korean TASK Team, together with PhilMech, conducted onsite inspections, online and one-on-one meetings with several Philippine Agri-machinery manufacturing companies as part of the expert mission. ### (Adora D. Rodriguez, DA-AFID)
