The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) is ready to set the ball rolling for the purchase of additional P3-billion worth of farm equipment under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).
In a statement, PhilMech, the agency tasked to fulfill the government’s promise to mechanize the rice farm sector amid a liberalize regime, said it hopes to award the bid contracts for additional P3-billion worth of farm equipment by December.
RCEF, the collection of rice import tariffs, is the Philippine government’s major compromise to rice farmers for allowing the unlimited rice importation in the country through the passage of Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).
Under the RTL, PHilMech should be given P5 billion annually from 2019 to 2024, or a six-year period, to fund the granting of farm machines to qualified farmers cooperatives and associations (FCAs) nationwide.
For this year, PhilMech has P10-billion worth of RCEF money because it wasn’t able to procure last year due to bureaucratic issues.
So far, the agency claimed it is now in the process of distributing P2 billion worth of farm equipment under RCEF, while the auction and awarding was already finished for the P5 billion worth of machineries.
Thus, PHilMech Executive Director Baldwin Jallorina said 2021 will be a busy year for his agency, as they will have to complete the distribution of P10 billion worth of farm machineries, while also processing the acquisition of another P5 billion worth of machineries.
“PHilMech will still be very busy in distributing farm machines even if 2021 will still have varying degrees of lockdowns and quarantines due to the coronavirus,” Jallorina said.
Like the bidding and acquisition for the first batches of farm machines worth P7 billion, PHilMech assured that it will conduct the one for the P3 billion latest batch of farm equipment “in the most transparent manner”.
The process from pre-bidding to awarding of bids, according to the agency, will be shown live over the agency’s Facebook page.
According to Jallorina, the bidding for various farm machines worth P3 billion already started on September 19 by making available the bid documents, which was followed by pre-bidding, evaluation of bids and awarding of bids.
“The awarding of bids will be done in December this year,” he reiterated.
The types of machines to be bid out under the P3-billion batch are four-wheel tractors, combine harvesters, reapers, seeders, hand tractors, transplanters, floating tillers, rice mills and threshers.
As of September 2, PHilMech has distributed 1,029 pieces of farm machines to qualified FCAs.
These are: 171 four-wheel farm tractors; 128 hand tractors; 235 floating tillers; 52 precision seeders; 35 walk-behind transplanters; 118 riding type transplanters; 35 reapers; 241 combine harvesters; and 14 mobile rice mills.
Business Bulletin had sought PhilMech for the names of the winning bidders, where the equipment will come from (whether it’s local or imported), who exactly the recipient will be, and the timetable for the equipment’s delivery, but the agency has not responded yet.
In August, a group of farmers claimed that the government had failed to consult with them regarding the distribution of farm equipment under RCEF, but Jallorina vehemently denied this.
“Hindi po tama yun ,” PHilMech Executive Director Baldwin Jallorina Jr. said, referring to this allegation.
Dhon Daganosol, a rice farmer in Eastern Visayas, particularly said in a virtual webinar that PhilMech has failed to consult with all the farmers, especially the smaller ones and those without landholdings, when it comes to the distribution of farm machinery under RCEF.
According to him, only “wealthy” farmers, who have their own land and are part of FCAs, will benefit from RCEF.
“Regarding the mechanization component of RCEF, we can see that this is not being implemented well. No consultation is happening. How can the government find out what type of machinery that a particular group of rice farmers need if there is no consultation?” Daganosol said.
Daganosol said that PhilMech should hold “grassroots” consultations to reach even rice farmers who live in the mountains.