Agency to sustain local machine development

THE Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) is sustaining the development of technologies for other farm commodities with assistance from South Korean entities.

This, as PHilMech has taken a major step to develop the local farm machinery industry with establishment of the Agricultural Mechanization Design and Prototyping Center (AMDPC) at the agency’s headquarters in Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, in collaboration with Korea International Cooperation Agency (Koica), Korea Institute for Development Strategy and the Korea Agricultural Machinery Industry Cooperative (Kamico).

“The AMDPC is the major step in developing the country’s farm machinery industry, and Kamico is a perfect partner as they already possess the expertise in the field,” said PHilMech Executive Director Dionisio Alvindia in a statement.

The program includes the fabrication of farm machinery parts in partnership with local manufacturers to be trained by South Korean engineers.

PHilMech has so far licensed six following local companies to manufacture the machinery and technologies the agency has designed and developed: ACT Machineries and Metalcraft Corp.; Agricomp Machineries and Construction Corp.; ARFAST Inc.; Diordan Construction; REB-Greentech Systems Enterprises; and Machinesystems Corp.

Among the farm machinery licensed were compact corn mill; hygienic fermentary box; impeller mill for brown rice; impeller rice mill combo; and 12-row onion mechanical seeder. The agency is also in the final stages of developing its fluidized bed dryer primarily for drying “palay” (unmilled rice).

Alvindia said that PHilMech’s accredited manufacturers have proven that Filipino firms can engage in fabrication of agricultural equipment.

The AMDPC will house a stateof-the-art design and prototyping equipment and tool with an estimated cost of $3.6 million. The AMDPC building is expected to begin its operation in the last quarter of 2023.