At least 15 farmers' cooperatives and associations (FCAs) in Nueva Ecija will adopt crop establishment technologies as part of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) mechanization program.
According to Joel V. Dator, director of operations at the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (DA-PhilMech), the FCAs are interested in taking on crop establishment technologies after seeing firsthand technology demonstrations of farm types of machinery.
Dator stated that despite being beneficiaries of the RCEF mechanization program, the 15 FCAs have yet to use crop establishment technologies.
During the demonstration, he emphasized how the DA-PhilMech displayed the various planting settings.
The DA-PhilMech has been running a campaign called "Makinaryang Pantanim: Push Na 'Yan Sa Palayan" to increase the adoption and utilization rate of crop establishment technologies like mechanical rice transplanters and precision rice seeders among the program's farmers' cooperative and association beneficiaries.
According to a DA-PhilMech survey, crop establishment technologies have a very low seven-hectare per season utilization rate.
According to DA-PhilMech, the machines' low popularity can be attributed to a lack of proper information about and on how to use the machines, which poses challenges in seedling preparation, issues with wide seedling spacing, and other issues.
Dator said that seasoned farmers were invited to share their personal and relay experiences on the adoption and utilization of crop establishment technologies to combat the issues.

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N. Ecija farmers to adopt crop tech under mechanization program