Manny Piñol
The Department of Agriculture (DA) is engaging a group of Filipino equipment makers and fabricators to design and build tools which are really needed by the local farmers.
DA Undersecretary for Livestock Deogracias Victor Savellano, who visited our Sorghum and Soybeans operations in North Cotabato on Saturday, said that DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has directed him to organize and assist Filipino equipment fabricators.
On Saturday, Usec Savellano how we were using the ordinary rice thresher to clean our sorghum grains and a small motor-powered chopper could turn Sorghum stalks and grains into Silage for Cattle, Sheep and Goats.
In taking the beans from the Soybeans pods, we also use rice threshers simply because we do not have the appropriate equipment for the task.
Photo shows the foreign-made Sorghum Debearding machine which is now being used to clean Sorghum Grains. (Photos by Stephen June Ehidio Fajardo, Braveheart Farms.)
Usec. Savellano was also shown the operations of a Sorghum ‘Debearding’ Equipment which we acquired overseas to be used in cleaning the grains which perhaps is the only one of its kind in the country.
Appreciating the important role of Filipino equipment fabricators in making tools and machines which are actually needed by local farmers, Usec. Savellano said that the DA is now organizing them so that they could be given the needed support.
“All that we need to do is to identify the actual equipment needs of our farmers and fisherfolk and ask the local fabricators group to build it,” Usec. Savellano said.
This is the correct approach in our mechanization program in the country which for decades had been dominated by foreign-made equipment designed for farm set ups entirely different from ours. (Manny Piñol)