The Provincial Agriculturist’s Office will distribute 17 brand new combined rice and corn harvester-thresher units to different farmers’ associations in Negros Oriental in time for the harvest season.
Provincial Agriculturist Emmanuel Caduyac told the media on Friday that the mechanized equipment would boost the local farmers’ income as it prevents wastage with the combined harvesting and threshing done through just one machine.
Caduyac said that harvested rice is automatically threshed from the stalks and comes out at one end of the machine as palay or unhusked rice.
“It is efficient because there is less wastage compared to the traditional way of harvesting crops and transferring the palay to another machine for threshing,” he said.
Farmers can prevent as much as 20 percent wastage with the use of new farm machinery, he added.
If there would be any wastage, it would only be around one to two percent of the total farm area, he explained.
The combined harvester-thresher units will be distributed in major rice-producing areas such as Canlaon City, Guihulngan City, Ayungon, Tayasan, Bindoy, Bayawan City, Sta. Catalina and Siaton.
They will be farmed out to farmers’ associations and cooperatives, which will be responsible for their maintenance as stipulated in the memorandum of agreement, Caduyac said.
The farm equipment were procured through the province’s supplemental budget and will be distributed in time for the harvest season starting next month, he added. (Judy F. Partlow/PNA)
