National postharvest plan crafted to raise productivity

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extention (BPRE) has crafted a national postharvest development plan (NPDP) to increase the level of productivity of the agricultural and fisheries sector by reducing postharvest losses in major commodities.

BPRE is attached to the Department of Agriculture (DA) and is mandated to spearhead the development of the country’s postharvest facilities.

Ricardo L. Cachuela, BPRE executive director, expressed high hopes “the program will play a greater role in improving not only the quality of the farmers’ produce but also the country’s agricultural economy.”

According to him, the postharvest development plan is an output of different activities conducted, such as coordination with the office of the provincial agriculturist to determine their interest on the project; consultative and participatory planning workshop; and plenary session to keep them abreast with the status of the different major commodities grown in the province.

Ernest Miro, provincial agriculturist of Davao del Sur, said the NPDP developed by BPRE “will help our farmers identify which postharvest facilities they still need to acquire especially now that they increased their hybrid rice production area from 3,082 to 4,000 hectares.”

He said the flatbed dryer distributed to the province by BPRE will benefit more than 3,000 farmers in the province.

“Ang kasalukuyang ginagamit ng aming mga magsasaka ay ang multi-purpose drying pavement (MPDP) para patuyuin and kanilang palay. Kung panahon ng tag-ulan, kailangan talaga gumamit ng mechanical dryer para maiwasan ang pagkasira ng ani,” said Miro.