Manila, Philippines -- Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala has signed the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Republic Act (RA) 10601 or the Agriculture and Fisheries Mechanization Act (AFMech), which paves the way for the creation of the Bureau of Agricultural and Fisheries Engineering (BAFE) that will formulate the five-year National Agri-Fishery Mechanization Program (NAFMP).
BAFE will be an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Alcala said the AFMech tasks the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) to take the lead in overall research, development, and extension (RDE) in farm and fisheries mechanization in the country.
PhilMech Executive Director Rex Bingabing said the NAFMP will be formulated through consultations with concerned agencies and the private sector.
“The BAFE will have one year from the approval of the IRR of AFMech to formulate the five-year NAFMP, and the next five-year program,” Bingabing said.
The NAFMP will serve as the overall agriculture and fishery modernization program to guide in the planning, programming, budgeting, and monitoring of the DA.
The five-year plan will also provide the direction for the formulation of the unified National Agricultural and Fisheries Mechanization Research and Development and Extension (NAFMechRDE) agenda that will “address, among others, the priority areas of concerns and commodities of the DA and the major mechanization needs of these commodities,” the IRR said.
It said “the NAFMechRDE agenda and the corresponding programs and projects should consider the transformation of a highly-productive, gender-responsive, environment-friendly, climate-resilient, and sustainable agricultural and fishery sector.”
“Besides increasing the mechanization level of the farm and fishery sector in the Philippines, the IRR of AFMech also takes into account developing the country’s agriculture sector in a sustainable way and helping it cope with the challenges of climate change,” Bingabing said.
The formulation and implementation of the NAFMechRDE will be undertaken by the AFMech Research, Development and Extension Network (AFMechRDEN), which will be led by PhilMech.
The network will be composed of research and development agencies, local government units (LGUs), non-government organizations, and recognized and well-established associations of agricultural and fisheries machinery assemblers, manufacturers and distributors, agricultural engineers, farmers and fisherfolk.
Among the institutions that will form part of the AFMechRDEN are the Agricultural Mechanization Development Program of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños, DA agencies involved in farm and fisheries mechanization efforts, and institutions of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
The IRR also tasks PhilMech and DOST to take the lead in the undertaking of a feasibility study for the local assembly and manufacture of agricultural engines/prime movers, and other agricultural machinery and equipment.
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