The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) vowed to distribute P30 billion worth of farm equipment under a program funded by tariffs collected from rice imports.
PhilMech, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), said it has distributed 26,412 farm equipment over the last four years through the mechanization program bankrolled by the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), or Rice Fund.
The farm machineries, distributed between mid-2020 and March 3 this year, were delivered to 368 local government units (LGUs) and 6,385 farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) with a total membership of almost 1 million individuals.
Meanwhile, the number of procured agricultural equipment totaled 28,817 from the start of the RCEF-Mechanization Program in mid-2019.
Distribution of farm equipment over the last four years translates to a 91.6-percent delivery rate under the program.
PHilMech said it has obligated a total P24.9 billion of Rice Fund for the procurement of 28,817 agricultural equipment made up of 14,713 units of land preparation machines; 4,284 units of crop establishment technologies; 8,210 harvesting and threshing equipment; 768 drying technologies; and 842 milling equipment.
“Equally important is PHilMech’s training of the FCAs and LGUs that received farm equipment, so they will be able to benefit from the technologies given to them, and operate these for many years,” the agency said in a statement.
“PHilMech intends to finish distributing at least P30 billion worth of farm machines under the RCEF Mechanization Program.”
Under Republic Act 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law, PHilMech gets P5 billion every year from 2019 to 2024 to distribute various agricultural equipment to qualified FCAs and LGUs.
The P5 billion is sourced from tariffs collected on rice imports. All the agricultural equipment distributed by PHilMech under the RCEF-Mechanization Program are in-kind or grants or are at no cost to qualified FCAs and LGUs nationwide.
The Philippines’s rice imports for 2024 could exceed 4 million metric tons (MMT) on expectations of lower paddy harvest, according to a report published by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The USDA raised its projection for Philippine rice imports for 2024 to 4.1 MMT from the previous 3.9 MMT in the latest edition of its report on global grains trade.
The country’s purchases of imported rice last year fell by nearly 9 percent to nearly 3.5 MMT due to volatile global market conditions such as higher prices and lower supply. Rice imports in 2022 reached a record 3.826 MMT.
El Niño, however, could again boost the country’s imports as the DA projected that rice production for 2024 will post flat growth.
The Philippines’s unmilled rice production last year reached a record 20.06 MMT, 1.56 percent higher than the 19.756 MMT produced in 2022, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Last month, the DA made an assurance that the country’s rice supply is sufficient through the first half of this year, with recent imports and the upcoming harvest that peaks in March and April, ensuring stable price of the country’s main food staple through June in spite of El Niño.
The DA said, however, that prices may stay elevated through September this year, due to concerns over El Niño’s impact on global rice supply and heightened demand for the grain that, consequently, is keeping international prices high.
Source: Businessmirror
