During the two-day meeting and the exit conference, there were no concerns raised about the agricultural equipment and machines delivered by PHilMech under RCEF across Eastern Visayas, including the province of Leyte
The Philip
pine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) accounted farm machines distributed in Leyte and other areas under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Mechanization Program as assisting recipients.
Some equipment distributed were allegedly “decaying” in their storage areas or are improperly used.
PHilMech director Dionisio Alvindia Jr. said that the DA-attached agency continually deploys monitoring teams to identify farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) and local government units (LGUs) that misuse or underutilize the equipment given.
Further, misused and underutilized machines are reallocated or given to another FCA or LGU.
No queries raised
“During the two-day meeting and the exit conference, there were no concerns raised about the agricultural equipment and machines delivered by PHilMech under RCEF across Eastern Visayas, including the province of Leyte,” Alvindia said, adding that a PHilMech representative recently joined the monitoring and validation conference.
“There was no mention during the conferences of ‘decaying’ farm equipment as reported by a columnist of a national daily to whom we are making an emphatic appeal to be more responsible in his reporting of facts,” he added.
Likewise, the agency consistently trains farmer recipients under the program on how to operate and maintain the machines given to them, Alvindia said.
A total of 82 units of farm equipment were reallocated, which were deemed underutilized or unutilized by their original recipients, according to PhilMech.
Under the 2019 enacted Rice Tariffication Law, a P10 billion annual appropriation for the RCEF is allocated, which will be directly distributed as an aid to local farmers: P5 billion for mechanization, P3 billion for inbred seeds, P1 billion for loans and P1 billion for training.
Daily Tribune - Business, Vivienne Angeles, July 29, 2024