President Benigno Aquino III inaugurated the P63.9 million Negros First Rice Processing Center in Barangay Tabunan, Bago City in Negros Occidental, at about 11:40 a.m. yesterday.

The NFRPC, a state-of-the-art facility, can mill 10 tons of rice per hour, with series of re-circulating dryers coupled to a single biomass furnace. The building stands on a 918 square meter land.

The modern rice processing center has a distoner that separates stones from rice, which are sometimes included in the milling, Igmedio Tabianan, provincial agriculturist, said yesterday.

He said the NFRPC has a milling recovery of 68 percent, compared to 55 up to 60 percent in normal milling.

The NFRPC also has a mechanism wherein it can produce brown rice, regular milled, and the white ones or polished rice, depending on the preference of the farmers or traders, Tabianan said.

The rice processing center was built through a counter parting scheme. The Department of Agriculture chipped in P19.9 million while the provincial government spent P44 million, including the additional allocation for the expansion.

Aquino said, “We have so many farmers who are getting older, so we need to improve our profit in farming to encourage the young ones to go into farming as well.”

He said the production of rice before was manual, the rice grains were dried on roads where they were hit by vehicles and the number of grains decreased.

“The long grain became broken grain. The drying process took three days. If already dried, the rain pours. Then we will return again to three days,” Aquino said.

“Now, farmers have a modern and more effective facility. This will result in more improved production of rice,” the President said.

“It is all we want, to help farmers and reach food security,” Aquino told several farmers who also witnessed the inauguration of NFRPC.

A total of 15,000 farmers are expected to benefit from the Rice Processing Complex, covering a rice area of 20,000 hectares.

Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer (Neg. Occ., 4th District), said the facility can greatly help farmers in his district, especially in Bago City which is the rice bowl of Negros Occidental, considering the vast plantation of rice.

The President said Negrenses should help this project and improve its results to attain a better life.

Meanwhile, the president commended the governor for helping him in realizing some projects in Negros Occidental, despite the fact that they were not on the same political party.

“Si Freddie hindi ko po kapartido, pero napakaayos kausap (Marañon is not my partymate but he is easy to deal with),” the president said.

The President and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas, unveiled the marker of the rice processing facility.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., and director general Joel Villanueva of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and Health Secretary Janette Garin were also present.

Ferrer, Bago City Mayor Ramon Torres, Rosemary Caunca, president of the League of Government Assisted Federations of Irrigators Association in Negros Occidental, also witnessed the ceremony.

The president also pushed the button of the semi automatic packing scale, that mechanically poured 50 kilos of rice onto a sack, during the ceremonial switch-on.

The NFRPC, that was set up to reduce post-harvest losses, was completed in November last year. It is expected to start operation in September this year, after the first cropping season, the Department of Agriculture said in a press statement.*SGG

back to top