Farmers’ groups in Iloilo get machinery

SEVENTY-six farmers associations from the province of Iloilo received one unit each of collapsible dryer case, a farm machinery, from the Iloilo Provincial Government and Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday, March 5, 2013.

Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. led the distribution of the equipment at the Iloilo Sports Complex in the presence of representatives from the DA and officials of the Provincial Agriculture Office.

The collapsible dryer case, which is a post-harvest facility for the drying of palay, is made of canvass and measures 75 square meters. The collapsible dryer case costs P27,000 in the market, however, they were given to the farmers associations for free.

Provincial Agriculturist Ildefonso Toledo said 33 sacks of palay could be placed for drying in the collapsible dryer case at one time.

What is unique with the facility is that it has a zipper that can be closed easily when the rain comes, thus saving the palay grains from getting wet, Toledo said.

In December 2012, the province and DA also gave farm machineries and post-harvest equipment worth P20 million to various farmers associations in the province.

The farm implements include combine harvester (four units), 4-wheel tractor (four units), hand tractor (80 units), rice thresher (26 units), transplanter (five units), collapsible dryer case (298 units), net laminated sacks (7,754 units), and pump and engine set.

Defensor said more farm implements will be distributed to farmers in the coming days using the P5 million savings obtained by the province in the procurement of farm machineries last year. (PR)