I WOULD like to know who are qualified to receive free farm equipment from the government.
Are these individual farmers? Or farmer associations? Or producer cooperatives?
What are the requirements that are needed in order to qualify for this program? How are the beneficiaries chosen?
It is good to see that the Department of Agriculture (DA) is implementing this program to help our farmers, but it would be good if we could learn more about this initiative, other than what we saw in the news about President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. distributing them.
If these background information kits are available from the DA, they should release it already to the public.
As it was announced, the DA distributed compact rice mills with polishers, rice harvesters, corn shellers and hand tractors in one Bicol municipality. But how was that municipality chosen?
What about all the other municipalities all over the country? How could they avail themselves of the program?
As far as I know, the government could not donate to individuals, because that would be prone to corruption. In other words, the machines might have been donated to either associations or cooperatives.
But which is which? Either way, there should have either been a deed of donation to cover the transfer of ownership, but which is which?
Whichever it is, is it possible to get a copy of the document?
In theory, there should have been a clause in the document about how the machines will be maintained. If there is none, there is a strong possibility that the machines will be junked if repairs could not be made, or if replacement funds could not be found.
Mr. Ramon Uy of RU Foundry in Bacolod City has an innovative solution to the problem of repairs and spare parts. He is providing equipment to farmers groups through his “Pandayan ng Bayan” program, which is basically a small machine shop that the farmers could operate after being trained by Mr. Uy. He also supplies shredders and composting machines./PN
