The Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Unit 6 will hasten its implementation of the Farm Mechanization Program next year, regional executive director Larry Nacionales said in a government press release.

Western Visayas is allotted more than half a billion pesos for the program, making it one of the three regions slated to receive the biggest share in the agriculture department’s budget next year, the press release said.

The other regions are Central Luzon and Cagayan Valley, it added.

Nacionales said they might conduct advance procurement as requests from various farmers group have already been submitted to their office.

He said  the use of machines was found to reduce losses by more than five percent. This is against the 15-percent losses that farmers usually suffer  due to lack of appropriate machines.

The program also supports the move of the national government to stop its importation of rice by 2013 because the national demand could now be supported as a result of higher production, the press release said.

The Farm Mechanization Program is implemented through a counterparting scheme where the government, through the DA, shoulders 85 percent of the acquisition cost of the machines, and  the recipients pay  15 percent, the press release also said.

However, it is open only to organized sectors such as irrigators’ associations or farmers’ cooperatives’.

These groups are also encouraged to seek help from their local government units for the counterpart fund, the press release added.*

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