The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) assured that all distributed farm machines in Leyte and other areas under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund  (RCEF) Mechanization Program are utilized by recipients.

This, after reports say some equipment distributed is “decaying”  allegedly being unutilized or improperly used.

PHilMech Director Dionisio Alvindia Jr. said that the DA-attached agency continually deploys monitoring teams to identify farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) and local government units (LGUs) that misuse or underutilize the equipment given.

Further, misused and underutilized machines are reallocated or given to another FCA or LGU.

“During the two-day conference and the exit conference, there were no concerns raised about the agricultural equipment and machines delivered by PHilMech under RCEF to qualified beneficiaries across Eastern Visayas, including the province of Leyte,” said Alvindia, saying that a PHilMech representative recently joined a monitoring and validation conference.

“There was no mention during the conferences of ‘decaying’ farm equipment as reported by a columnist of a national daily to whom we are making an emphatic appeal to be more responsible in his reporting of facts,” he added.

Likewise, the agency consistently trains farmer recipients under the program on how to operate and maintain the machines given to them, said Alvindia.

A total of 82 units of farm equipment were reallocated, which were deemed underutilized or unutilized by their original recipients, according to PhilMech.

Under the 2019 enacted Rice Tarrification Law, a P10 billion annual appropriation for the RCEF is allocated, which will be directly distributed as an aid to local farmers: P5 billion for mechanization, P3 billion for inbred seeds, P1 billion for loans, and P1 billion for training.