DA introduces rice combine harvester machine to Iloilo farmers
Some 200 farmers from Dingle and Pototan municipalities in Iloilo were given an orientation recently about the rice combine harvester machine, a new technology that "makes rice harvesting faster and easier."
The DA regional agriculture and fishery information division (RADIF) said that the new machine could perform four tasks simultaneously in one operation.
The machine that was improved by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) performs cutting, threshing, cleaning and bagging in one operation which traditionally are performed separately.
Engr. Rolly Garganilla of PhilRice said "the new machine reduces the increasing labor requirement for harvesting, gathering, pilling, threshing, cleaning and bagging high-yielding rice varieties."
It will also enable farmers to harvest their crops on time and reduce post harvest losses to grain deterioration, fissuring, and shattering.
Manuel O. Olanday, regional rice program coordinator, said that the demonstration of the rice combine harvester was in line with the farm mechanization program of the department.
“It is now time for the Filipino farmers to embrace farm mechanization just like Vietnam and Thailand for us to solve the declining farmers population and be competitive,” said Olanday.
He also encouraged farmers to strengthen their associations and cooperatives especially on rice cluster areas if they planned to avail one unit of rice combine harvester so as to maximize its utilization among their members.
The PhilRice has given one unit rice combine harvester to all DA-regional units for demonstration purposes.
The harvester costs P350,000 and is capable to harvest one hectare per day. It was manufactured locally, and is easy to fabricate and repair.
The new machine only needs an operator and a bagger for its operation which greatly reduce the cost of harvesting.
It uses only six liters of gasoline to harvest one hectare because of its 16-horsepower engine. (PNA)