ILOILO CITY, (PNA) — As part of the Dept. of Agriculture’s commitment to help farmers on its production, DA Sec. Proceso Alcala will lead the turn-over of P 7 million-worth Rice Processing Complex and four-wheel tractor to PALACATI-AN Irrigator’s Association during the Rice Harvest Festival in Brgy. Tigum, Pavia, Iloilo on Tuesday.
Alcala will personally turn over the grants to the association led by its president Eduardo Alcasaren.
The association is composed of 452 registered members that have been working in 810 hectares of rice land.
The association has been chosen as the DA’s beneficiary citing its good performance in service fee collection that resulted continuous incentives received from the National Irrigation Administration.
With this, the DA has funded the modern processing complex to help reduce post-harvest losses of the association’s members especially every cropping season by providing access to efficient drying and milling facilities.
The processing complex which is equipped with Multi-Pass Rice Mill has a minimum output capacity of one ton per hour milled rice.
It has also 300 square-meter warehouse with complete drainage and electrical system, portable moisture meter for rice and corn, and weighing scale with one ton capacity.
The association’s good performance has also contributed a big impact to Iloilo as it ranks fourth in the 2012 rice production nationwide.
In fact the first semester of 2013, the province produced 226, 812 MT of palay with an average yield of 2.95 metric ton per hectare in the 76, 919-hectare area harvested.
The projected area harvested for the second semester of this year are 17, 615 hectares for the months of July to August and 64, 954 hectares for the month of September.