The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Thursday granted about PHP135.8 million worth of post-harvest facilities and financial assistance to farmers and farmers’ groups in Nueva Ecija.

In a statement, the DA said it distributed rice mills and dryers from the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) to two farmers’ cooperatives in Jaen and Guimba.

“The government is giving back to farmers what is due them and with the help of our legislators, we could provide rice producers more assistance to enhance their competitiveness through the extension of the Rice Tariffication Law,” DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in a speech.

Under the Rice Tariffication Law, PhilMech receives a PHP10 billion allocation from the Rice Competitiveness and Enhancement Fund (RCEF) to benefit local farmers through farm input support and mechanization.

In Jaen, the DA provided the Pakul Primary Multi-Purpose Cooperative with a rice processing system II worth PHP53.6 million, which includes a state-of-the-art, multi-stage rice mill with a capacity of 2 tons to 3 tons per hour, which also has a pre-cleaner, de-stoner, huller, mist polisher, length grader, color sorter, blending tank, automatic packing machine for milled rice, rice hull bin, dust collection system, and air-conditioned control room.

The cooperative will also get a recirculating dryer, with a 12-ton-per-batch drying capacity, and one recirculating dryer, with a 6-ton-per-batch drying capacity, with a total value of PHP7.06 million.

Besides these, the DA 3 (Central Luzon) also turned over PHP13 million worth of RCEF production technologies and intervention, as well as PHP1.9 million worth of assistance under the High-Value Crops Development Program.

In Guimba, the DA and PhilMech turned over to the Cooperative Enterprise for True Economic Reform a similar rice processing system II worth PHP48.58 million, plus three 12-ton recirculating dryers worth PHP11.71 million. (PNA)