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| DA and local farm equipment fabricators |
BUTUAN CITY - To help local
fabricators of farm machinery competitive and at par with other fabricators
anywhere in the country, the Department of Agriculture (DA) Caraga conducted a
coordination meeting recently and organized them into an association.
Spearheaded by the Regional Agriculture
Engineering Division (RAED), around 18
local manufacturers and dealers in the region attended the said meeting.
RAED Chief Engineer Rene Morales said that such
meeting with the local fabricators was the first time as DA Caraga recognized
local fabricators as potential suppliers of high quality farm machinery.
“Performance of products is the parameter for a
company to join public bidding of farm equipment to be supplied to the farmer
recipients,” Morales emphasized.
Foremost requirement to join a public bidding, the
machine should conform to the standards set by the Philippine Agricultural
Engineering Standards (PAES) thus a testing of the machine to know its
efficiency is a must.
Such kind of testing is done solely by
Agricultural Machinery Testing and Evaluation Center (AMTEC) based at the
University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).
The PAES is part of the Philippine Standards for
Agriculture and Fisheries Machinery developed by the PAES, AMTEC and other DA
agencies, which was developed by virtue of DA A.O. No. 11 Series of 2001.
As an initial assistance, DA Caraga consolidated
local fabricators who are ready for AMTEC testing to facilitate the presence of
AMTEC engineers in Caraga to conduct the test.
“We are grateful that DA is extending assistance
for us because it is so expensive if we will have the AMTEC testing
individually,” Noel Honorio, one of the local fabricators said.
DA Caraga supported the move to lobby to AMTEC to
put up a testing center for Mindanao to be located in one of the universities
in Caraga.
To strengthen local manufacturers and dealers,
they were organized and voted Pedro Lim of San Francisco, Agusan del Sur as the
president.
Assistant Regional Director (ARD) for Operations
and LGU Support Edgardo D. Dahino is optimistic that more Caraga-based farm
machinery fabricators could supply the needed equipment for the farmers instead
of sourcing it outside the region.
DA Caraga annually conducted a public bidding to
supply farm equipment mostly pre and post harvest facilities such as tractors,
floating tiller, thresher, among others in support to its banner program
interventions for corn, rice, high value crops development program, organic,
livestock and special projects. (Aurelius Parido Arais/DA Caraga)
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