Funds for Kalinga rice dryers wasted

By Dexter A. See

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The millions of pesos spent by the national government for the construction of many post-harvest facilities nationwide have gone to waste.
This was shown by the flatbed dryers given to thousands of farmers here. These facilities are not serving the purpose for which these are intended.

A monitoring team of the Department of Agriculture discovered recently that many units of flatbed dryers are being used as sleeping platforms by the farmers instead of using them for the drying of palay.

Of the 23 flatbed dryers installed in different parts of the province, seven or 30 percent are operational at present but these need immediate repair due to surface damage.

The monitoring team discovered that most of the problems encountered in the construction of the flatbed dryers pertain to incomplete parts such as bolts and braces for the roof and skirts.

Supposedly, the flatbed dryer, compared to a solar dryer and drying pavement, is more economical and convenient to use by farmers.

It was found out that almost all rice farmers in the province are using solar drying pavements and roads because the flatbed dryers supplied to them were heavily damaged.

Instead of using the facilities for the drying of their palay, the farmers used the flatbed dryers as sleeping platforms.

The monitoring team recommended immediate review of the flatbed dryer technology, particularly the design of the furnace and the quality of its refractory cement panels, metal fixtures as well as the perforated metal floorings which were observed to be the heavily damaged parts.

The team cited need to test the moisture evaporation from the palay being dried in the flatbed dryer.

Farmers in the province have been constantly asking the DA to provide flatbed dryers which are durable, noting that the present ones are easily damaged due to certain factors.

Furthermore, the farmers demanded the conduct of an investigation on who facilitated the delivery of the substandard flatbed dryers so that the national government could pinpoint the officials liable for the irregularity.

The national government has embarked on the distribution of flatbed dryers to rice farmers nationwide so that they could dry their palay even during the rainy days.

However, rice farmers in this province claimed many of the delivered flatbed dryers were never used for the purpose for which these were intended because many of the facilities were incomplete. The farmers said they were asked to sign documents stating that they have received the facilities complete with parts and accessories.