The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) will make qualified farmer cooperatives major partners in modernizing the rice mill industry in the country.
PhilMech Executive Director Ricardo L. Cachuela said that under the Department of Agriculture Mechanization and Postharvest Program for Rice (2011 to 2016), which is being finalized, qualified farmer cooperatives that are engaged in rice farming will be given financing support to take ownership of their own rice mills, which will be more efficient than most that are currently operated by rice millers and some farmer cooperatives.
Based on surveys and field studies conducted by PhilMech, most rice mills in the rural areas in the Philippines use single pass mills where the recovery rate from unhusked rice (palay) is from 50% to 57%.
Cachuela said that under the program to modernize the rice milling industry in the Philippines, mills using the multi-pass technology will be made available to qualified farmer cooperatives. A multi-pass rice mill has recovery rate from 65% to 70%.
“Recovering an additional 8% to 13% from milling operations alone will contribute significantly to the supply of rice in the Philippines if many farmer cooperatives are able to operate the multi-pass mills,” Cachuela said.
Under the program, the DA will provide a grant, equivalent to 75% of the cost of the multi-pass rice mill, while the qualified farmer cooperative will shoulder the remaining 25% with loans and capital outlay. A modern rice mill employing the multi-pass system costs around P4 million each excluding cost of land.
Farmer cooperatives that can take part in the program should be registered with the Cooperative Development Authority, and willing to shoulder preconstruction expenses like land filling, compacting and clearing, among others.
“With this program, farmer cooperatives could get to own their modern rice mills that will in turn greatly help their members because the recovery rate from milling palay is higher,” Cachuela said.
He added that many farmer cooperatives already have profitable operations, and that these cooperatives are more than ready to provide their own counterpart funds to acquire and operate multi-pass rice mills.
Cachuela said that there are still farmers who use the old “kiskisan” method in milling palay, where the recovery rate is as low as 50%.
“It is high time that farmers adopt the latest technologies in postharvest and milling, so they can achieve higher efficiencies and profitability in their operations,” the PhilMech director said. -30- DA-PhilMech
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