Officials off to Manila for agri-machinery expo

NEGROS Occidental provincial officials will go to Manila on July 5 to attend the Makina-saka 2012 agricultural machinery exposition that will be held on July 4 to 7 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

Board Member Salvador Escalante said Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. and Vice Governor Genaro Alvarez along with the members of the Provincial Board are set to attend the said exposition, considering that the province is heavily dependent on agriculture for its economy.

Since the Provincial Board will have its regular session on Thursday, they opted to go to Manila on Friday, he said.

The exposition aims to educate farmers on the newest farm production technologies and post-harvest machineries, he said.

Escalante stressed that upgrading of machineries is important because the country’s farm equipment are really way below those of other agricultural countries in Asia.

About 100 exhibitors, 70 of which come from the private sector, will participate in the expo.

The expo will also serve as a venue for networking among farmers associations, irrigators associations and other agricultural stakeholders. Some 903 irrigators associations are also participating in the show.

Among the farm machineries that will be displayed are hand tractors, four-wheel tractors, cultivators, water pumps, sprayers, transplanters, drum seeders, seed cleansers, threshers, harvesters, combined harvester-reapers, drying machines, cassava chipper and granulators, onion harvesters, corn sellers and food packaging systems. (TDE)