NUEVA ECIJA – Department of Agriculture- Special Area for Agricultural Development (DA-SAAD) National Project Management Office (NPMO) staff visited the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) last February 6, 2017 to seek technical assistance and guidance for possible post-harvest facilities to be used in their flagship program.

Under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration and in the leadership of DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, the SAAD program was created to reduce the country’s poverty incidence by focusing on ten priority provinces per year from 2017 until 2022.

PhilMech Director Dionisio Alvindia stressed the importance of post-harvest facilities, e.g. dryers, hullers, tractors, and the like, on making farming easier and more convenient thus the key to encouraging more people to indulge in the activity in the future.

PhilMech presented its projects and demonstrated its own-designed types of machinery, such as their Compact Corn Mill, Floating Tiller, Cassava Digger, Coffee Huller, Tramline, and Solar Tunnel Dryer.

Bioprocess Engineering Division Chief Ofero Caparino also discussed their project on utilizing coconut water for market consumption, the process of extracting oil from ylang-ylang flowers, creating brickets from cacao peel, and distilling ethanol for further use.

The SAAD team also toured the Central Luzon State University’s livelihood projects, such as the Mushroom Center, Hydroponics, and Aquaponics Farm, and Small Ruminant Center, to gather necessary information and benchmarks for the SAAD interventions. ###