In the Philippines, the transfer of agricultural mechanization technology has been a very slow process. The level of agricultural mechanization in the country was mostly dependent on human and animal power. But multitude of machinery have already been imported for adoption. However, these machines were designed to favor large contiguous hectares of land and were then utilized solely by big farm enterprises. This adoption of machineries are only to those who can afford new technologies in farming such as corporations in order to generate more products and generate income.
With the continued technology generation and the growing capability of our local Machinery manufacturers, we then tried designing and adapting small imported machinery, equipment, and other technology to suit our own needs and conditions. These proved to be an effective means of increasing the level of machinery use in the farms and gave birth to the concept of āappropriate technologyā or in our special case, āappropriate agricultural mechanization technology.ā This has been a catch-all phrase for all agricultural tools, machines, and implements that are simple, cheap, and can be Locally serviced or manufactured.
The very existential question now is how about those farmers belong to the marginalized sectors who cannot afford to purchase farming equipment which is common in our current scenario?
The Philippine government has long been striving to achieve modernization of the rural sector. To date, the latest major enactment by the government is the Republic Act (R.A.) 8435 of 1997, popularly known as the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA). It prescribes urgent related measures to modernize the agriculture and fisheries sectors of the country in order to enhance profitability and to prepare for the challenges brought about by globalization. Section 59 of this Act gives priority to the development and promotion of appropriate agricultural machinery and other agricultural mechanization technologies to enhance agricultural mechanization in the country.
In this case, only few have an access to this privilege and still majority of farmers in the Philippines are scarce to utilize advance technologies and not all rural areas have the means to provide these technologies because of poor linkage to other agencies that will aid them in their agricultural production and development.
Moreover, there are no suitable and accessible farming equipment in other rural areas because of its distance and no accessible roads in which majority of the farmers own a small land. According to Salokhe (2003), the main criteria which should be considered during the development are that these machines should be suitable for use in small farms, easily repairable and maintainable, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly. The word āappropriateā should be interpreted as appropriate to the farmers in terms of their needs and affordability.
Aside from inaccessibility to small-owned land, poor linkage to other agencies, and no access to farm equipment, there are still barriers to farmers that will their products at stake. The availability of pesticides and fertilizers and farm manpower in maneuvering farm equipment.
In the Philippine scenario, which majority of farmers belong to the low poverty threshold, few of them especially those farmers who are in remote rural areas cannot afford for pesticides and fertilizers.
According to Presidential Decree No. 1144 other known as Creating the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority and abolishing the Fertilizer Industry Authority for the purpose of assuring the agricultural sector of adequate supplies of fertilizer and pesticide at reasonable prices, rationalizing the manufacture and marketing of fertilizer, protecting the public from the risks inherent in the use of pesticides, and educating the agricultural sector in the use of these inputs.
As a country where political division is a norm, though this Presidential Decree No. 1144 is implemented in the country, there are still areas in the Philippines especially remote rural areas do not have an access to this due to limited sources and information and institutional weaknesses because of failure to proper dissemination of fertilizers and pesticides because of political affiliation. According to Paras, F. Jr., and Amongo, R. M. (2007), Information is the key to making sound decisions. Some farmers are unaware of the availability of a suitable machine, tool, or implement that could aid in their usually tedious work. They might be secluded from the technology by natural barriers and sociopolitical boundaries. Sadly enough, some farmers are even lackadaisical and seemingly uninterested in mechanization.
In the process of technological advancement in addressing agricultural problems and barriers, it is imperative to solve the existing issues. It is always important to tackle this internal problems first before advancing or taking another step. Poor farmers, limited sources and information, institutional weaknesses, and technological manpower must be eradicated in the Philippine scenario. These are the main cause why Philippine agricultural aspects have poor production of goods to supply the country and good to be imported.
The government must continuously support the farmers belong to marginalized sectors in terms of information dissemination that will provide them knowledge about agriculture. Government should provide seminars and orientation on proper machination to empower majority of farmers in the Philippines. Limited sources of information will result to poor production.
One thing that also hinder them is the failure of supply of fertilizers and pesticides that will be utilized in the production of goods. It should be properly distributed. The government and other agencies must work on this. There supplies from the government but farmers do not know how it works and how it will apply.
Technological manpower is another prevailing issues when it comes to agricultural aspects due to poor linkage with agencies. Though government has provided agricultural areas with technologies still there are farmers incapable of manifesting the equipment. There should also a proper orientation for it. Government may even hire an employee to oversee and guide the farmers. There is no sense in developing machines that nobody is using.
Further, there is also a technology verification and assessment that would permit evaluation for developing, modifying, or entirely stopping the development of a technology. For instance, technology adoption assessment was conducted for the UPLB hand tractor. The study established the potential of the technology and revealed possible modifications to further enhance its performance and acceptability. It also revealed that locally trained manufacturers lacked some knowledge in marketing strategies (Paras et al. 2004).
Lastly, Institutional weakness. Socio-political issues still divide us from local to upper level. This is the main reason why Philippines belong to one of the poorest countries in the world, and listed as one of the corrupt countries. The result will certainly bounce back to the local and marginalized sectors who suffered directly because of this.
Finally, proper mechanization of the Philippine farm is imperative in order to create proper milieu for farmers and to sustain the needs of the agricultural sectors. If properly addressed, this will certainly generate more products and will alleviate the economy of the Philippines. The problems must be solved so we can take another step to a more advanced innovation.
After uncovering the barriers surrounding the transfer of small farm mechanization technology and citing possible strategies to break down these barriers, what is needed now is the implementation of the strategies that were suggested.
The commitment of all the stakeholders to uplift the conditions in our small farms through appropriate mechanization schemes can be our starting point. This will definitely be a long ride but from here on, we will only progress and realize our goal if we will all cooperate and accept responsibilities and be accountable to the farmers who need our help.
References:
Agricultural Mechanization Development Program (AMDP). 2002. AMDP brochure. Institute of Agricultural Engineering, College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology, University of the Philippines Los BaƱos. Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority. (2005). Presidential Decree No. 1144. Retrieved at http://fpa.da.gov.ph/index.php/about-us-momo/policies-laws-and regulation-momo/pd-1144-momo
Paras, F. Jr., and Amongo, R. M. (2007). Technology Transfer Strategies for Small Farm Mechanization Technologies in the Philippines. Retrieved at https://www.fftc.org.tw/htmlarea_file/library/20110726161100/eb570.pdf
Paras, F. O. Jr.; B.L. Paita; A.A. Blastique. (2004). Technology adoption assessment: the case of the UPLB differential type hand tractor. Mechanization Update. Agricultural Mechanization Development Program 10,2:4.
Salokhe, V.M. and A. Oida. (2003). Development of appropriate agricultural machinery for Southeast Asian countries. Laboratory of Agricultural Systems Engineering. Retrieved 16 April 2005 www.fsao.kais.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ guest_prof/Salokhe_report.pdf
