Mindoro Island is set to receive a larger share of farm machinery in 2026 as the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) continues the rollout of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) 2.0, which allots P9 billion per year for mechanization from 2025 to 2030.

Citing the ongoing 2025 cycle, PhilMech said Monday that the programmed P366.64 million worth of farm equipment for 141 farmer cooperatives and associations (FCAs) and local government units (LGUs) across Oriental and Occidental Mindoro.

The planned allocation builds on earlier mechanization support, with more than P1.62 billion in machines delivered to the island from 2019 to 2024 under the first RCEF-Mechanization Program. This benefited 310 FCAs and LGUs.

Mindoro a priority area

PhilMech said Mindoro remains a priority area under RCEF 2.0 due to its agricultural potential and logistical challenges. 

“PhilMech considered Mindoro Island a unique challenge in distributing farm machines, and organizing FCAs, as it does not match Luzon when it comes to infrastructure. 

But PhilMech was able to deliver more than P1.6 billion worth of farm equipment, including ‘heavyweights’ like four-wheel tractors and rice combine harvesters, to areas where mechanization was mostly needed,” PhilMech director IV Dionisio G. Alvindia said.

“Mindoro is currently priming itself as a major producer of rice in the Philippines as it has vast tracts of agricultural lands, and mechanization will definitely make a difference in rice farming in the island,” he added.

PhilMech said it is also sustaining road shows across Mindoro to encourage more farmers and cooperatives to adopt mechanization, noting that the island had significant poverty levels before and during the pandemic and that equipment deployment can help uplift communities.

For 2025, Occidental Mindoro is set to receive P207.47 million in equipment for 69 FCAs and LGUs, while Oriental Mindoro will get P159.17 million for 72 FCAs and LGUs.

Farm machines distributed on the island include four-wheel tractors, rice combine harvesters, hand tractors, floating tillers, PTO-driven disc plows, levee marker implements, precision rice seeders, walk-behind and riding-type transplanters, rice reapers, rice threshers, recirculating dryers, single-pass and impeller rice mills, village-type mills, and multi-stage rice mills.