LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, (PNA) — Some 100 farm machinery exhibitors are joining the five-day Makina Saka Agri-Machinery Road Show which opened today at the premises of the Pangasinan Training and Development Center here.
Attending the road show are 2,000 farmer leaders and advocates from seven regions in Luzon and 10,000 others from the local farmers’ group and irrigators associations.
The Road Show which runs from September 30 to October 4 showcases a wide array of new farming technologies through various farm machinery and post-harvest facilities that farmers can use to improve their farming methods and increase production.
Maricris Ite, a DA official from Region IV-A said the farmer leaders came from the irrigators associations, small water impounding system associations and farmer cooperatives from Regions 1,2, 3, IV-A, IV-B, 5 and the Cordillera Autonomous Region.
Ite said the opening seminar at the Pangasinan Training and Development Center aimed to inform farmers on the new technologies and modern equipment that fit their needs and educate them on the proper utilization of such equipment.
“Makina Saka” is in line with DA’s Agricultural Mechanization Development Program which seeks to provide farmers with modern farming equipment and post-harvest facilities to register more profit and uplift their economic conditions.
Under the program, the DA will provide equipment to the farmer associations on equity basis where the DA provides 85 percent while the farmers shoulder the remaining 15 percent of the total cost of the machinery.
Ruben Martin Agudo, president of the Cabasan Irrigators Association in Cagayan (Region 2) said he is very interested to be part of the program because he wants his association to become a beneficiary of the Makina Saka or the farm machines offered by DA.
He said that in Cagayan, almost all the farmers are using carabaos to till their lands, adding that of their 170 members, only about 10 are using mechanized farming.
Thus if they use farm machines, farming will be a lot easier and that they can catch up with their planting calendar, Agudo said.
Benjamin Tamayo, a president of the small water impounding system association in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya said he intends to impart the knowledge he will gain from the three-day activity to his fellow farmers.
A Region 1 Technical Director Ed Gonzales said some 10,000 spectators are expected to learn from the five-day activity.
The Makina-Saka Agricultural Road Show is spearheaded by DA Region 1 in coordination with the Provincial Government of Pangasinan.