Farmers should be allowed to choose the equipment of their choice under the farm mechanization program financed by the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) to address the underutilization of equipment, according to the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF).
FFF said while the program has been helpful in reducing farmers’ production costs, it has also been hounded by recurring reports of underutilized or idle equipment.
Under the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), P5 billion out of the P10 billion allocated annually for RCEF have been spent mainly for the procurement and distribution of farm machinery to select farmers and farmers organizations.
FFF said the mechanization program being implemented by the Philippine Center for Post-harvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) has distributed over 25,000 tractors and other farm equipment worth around P16 billion as of end-2023.
FFF said many farmer-recipients have complained the machines are of poor quality or are not their preferred brands and capacities. Others said spare parts and mechanics for repair and maintenance are not readily available which leads to constant breakdown.
“The Department of Agriculture and PhilMech can set a budget for each type of equipment, allow beneficiaries to select the brand and dealers they prefer and then pay qualified suppliers accordingly,” said Raul Montemayor, FFF national manager, in a statement.
PhilMech pools approved requests for machinery and conducts a public bidding among interested suppliers.
Since only one winning bidder is selected, only one type or brand of equipment is granted to farmers.
The group said RCEF can be tapped in establishing common service facilities such as modular driers, equipment repair shops and machinery pools that farmers can use as needed, without having to own and maintain them.
FFF said support should also be extended to local fabricators to reduce the country’s dependence on imported machines.
