By Cielito M. Reganit
LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, (PNA) – Agriculture officials on Tuesday highlighted the need to improve the country’s level of agriculture mechanization if we are to attain and sustain food self-sufficiency targets and become competitive with our Asian neighbors.
At the same time, they assured farmers that mechanization would not lead to massive displacement of farm workers as most farmers feared but rather would complement human labor to become more efficient in field work.
This was stressed by Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and Undersecretary Dante Delima during the 2013 MakinaSaka being held September 30 to October 4, 2013 at the Capitol Grounds in Lingayen, Pangasinan.
MakinaSaka, which is now in its 3rd staging, is an agri-machinery roadshow presentation that showcases the latest in agricultural machineries, equipment, systems and gadgets that aims to drum up more support among farmers.
Different kinds and models of tractors, rice transplanters, reapers, threshers, combine harvesters and other latest production and post-production technologies are displayed and demonstrated by various local farm equipment manufacturers and distributors, government institutions and DA agencies.
Delima said MakinaSaka is a way of promoting new and appropriate farm machineries and equipment to accelerate the level of agricultural mechanization in the country in order to achieve and sustain food self-sufficiency.
“If food self-sufficiency is to be attained, the level of farm mechanization in the country should have to be increased not only to reduce labor in field work but also to improve production efficiency,” he said.
“Farm mechanization lowers agriculture production cost and lessens postharvest losses while maximizing profits for farmers,” Delima.
Meanwhile, Alcala said the Philippines is lagging far behind in terms of farm mechanization compared to our Asian neighbours.
According to the Agriculture chief, the level of Philippine farm mechanization at present stands at 2.31 horsepower per hectare, compared to .51 hp/ha during the 90’s.
“However, this is much lower than the 7 hp/ha mechanization level of Japan and the 4.7 hp/ha of China,” he noted.
With MakinaSaka, the DA hopes to increase the country’s mechanization level to 3 hp/ha by 2016 which will enable the Philippines to surpass Vietnam, he said.
More importantly, Alcala said that Makinasaka would enable farmers to select the appropriate farm equipment and machineries best suited for their needs.
“Using the right farm machineries would drastically reduce post-production losses and improve production efficiency,” he stressed.
Alcala also hoped that MakinaSaka would inspire Filipino inventors to develop or improve existing models.
“Sana and MakinaSaka ay maging susi sa ating mga imbentor para makagawa ng mga makinarya na abot-kaya ng ating mga magsasaka at angkop sa mga sakahan ng bawat lugar ng Pilipinas,” Alcala said.
Meanwhile, both officials stressed that farm mechanization would not lead to massive displacement of farmers or farm workers.
They said that machineries cannot replace manpower but would be used to complement human labor to be more efficient in field work.
Delima, the person behind MakinaSaka, said that far from removing farmers or farm workers from the fields, mechanization would lead to a more professionalized agriculture sector as they would be trained to maintain and operate state-of-the-art equipment.
“Ang layunin ng mechanization ay para pagaanin ang trabaho ng magsasaka upang magampanan nito ang kaniyang tungkulin at matamo ang layuning pakainin ng sapat ang bawat Pilipino,” Delima said.