TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the Office of the City Agricultural Services (OfCAS) gave farmers in Barangay Cabaruan a demonstration of their new Precision Rice Seeder (PRS) in order to better assist the farmers from Tabuk.
Christian Domingo of PhilRice claims that their goal is to demonstrate the new PRS, which is used to plant rice seeds directly, and to instruct farmers on how to use it.
“I-introduce natin po ito para si farmer, gagaan ang trabaho nila, at the same time makakatipid pa kumpara sa manu-manong pagtatanim,” he said.
With the advent of the PRS, a farmer might be able to plant rice seeds on a hectare of rice land in a matter of minutes as opposed to taking several people and hours to do so.
Domingo added that although this technology has long been utilized in other nations, it has not been adopted in the Philippines for a number of reasons, including farmers’ skepticism about its viability or other farmers’ destruction of newly introduced farming methods out of concern for their jobs.
He continued by saying that they should welcome new technologies to aid in farming and that they had nothing to worry.
Regarding individuals who worry about losing their jobs, the government is working nonstop to give them access to alternative sources of income.
The city is the fourth to obtain a PRS free of charge from the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech).
Domingo advised farmer cooperatives and associations interested in obtaining a PRS to become accredited, register in the Registry System for the Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA), submit a request to the OfCAS/Department of Agriculture (DA)-Kalinga, and wait for the PhilMech to determine their eligibility before acquiring a PRS.
