BAR TODAY || Official Quarterly Publication of the Bureau of Agricultural Research

Today's trend in Philippine agriculture and fisheries is commercialization. Is there such thing when it comes to agriculture and fisheries (A/F) mechanization? I would probably say, “Yes” and experts in the field also would agree with me that there is such thing as commercialized mechanization. What do we mean by commercialized mechanization or commercialization of A/F mechanization? At first, we ask the question like, what is this all about? Is there such thing as mechanization? Or to be more specific, what is commercialization of agriculture and fisheries mechanization? These questions would probably solicit a great deal of argument and discussions because not all are into mechanization. People may probably direct their views on specific areas like programs, activities, technologies, interactions and impacts to be part of this discourse.

In order to set direction, this article is written to illustrate that there is such thing as commercialization of agriculture and fisheries mechanization. However, opinions and views on the subject matter will be treated with utmost flexibility in order that we encourage participatory discussions among key players in the field. As a start, I post the question - Is Commercializing A/F Mechanization Program the next Step to competitiveness or business activity? My reviews and search would lead me to say, a strong “YES.” Let me now convince you to share my thoughts coming from the perspective of a social scientist and development oriented practitioner.

Background of commercializing A/F mechanization
Long before the introduction of a formal process of commercialization, farm management operations and activities use small farm tools, implements and machineries including technologies; commercializing these have taken place within several farms of farmers and ponds of fishermen. These people used technologies to enhance farm work with the aid of apparatus and instruments. These are simple tools which aid in planting certain crops and machines that require faster and quicker work accomplished and to minimize manual farm labor. Based on these, it seems that there has been a historic base of continuous utility of farm implements and machineries. More so, innovative technologies led to the increase development and application of tools and machines until these are part of the improvement of farm operation and management.

Globally, engineers made sure that every farm implement, machines and technologies developed will support the increasing need to fully mechanize farm operations. From a simple garden tool to a harvesting truck or processing plant led to better quality harvest or ease post harvest operations. This was the objective in mind of engineers and inventors whose everyday concern is to make farm management better without additional cost to farms but rather increase production and profit.

Based on these, where does commercialization come in? What specific areas are commercialized in mechanization? Who are involved in mechanization? Will this commercialization activity work? These same questions led me to deal on the background or basis for commercialization of A/F mechanization. The very basic factor under these circumstances is people. People utilize the implements, machines and technologies in their respective farms, fish ponds or tanks. How are people responding to these issues, concerns and programs on mechanization? Everything led to only one thing, mechanization eases operation and management. This single notion is the ultimate basis of mechanization, be it during or after crop or animal/fish production and management.

Commercialization program of three-user friendly farm machines
The attempt and initiative of the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) to start supporting the commercialization of agriculture and fisheries (A/F) mechanization started during the last quarter of 2006. It was introduced at the height of the national technology commercialization program of the Department of Agriculture (DA). Under the program, three national R&D agencies organized themselves to make a difference and contribute to the main goal of the A/F commercialization. Based on the gains of continuous R&D activities of these DA agencies, the Bureau of Post Harvest Research and Extension (BPRE), the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the Fiber Industry Development Authority (FIDA) worked together to established an integrated and consolidated A/F commercialization program.

The program aims to bring to the marketplace R&D results like machines and implements. It also aims to pump-prime the sustainable utilization and commercialization of these R&D results to effect agricultural modernization and community development.

The specific objectives of the program are 1) to determine the extent of application and utilization of developed agriculture and fishery machines and small farm implements; 2) to encourage and establish partnerships among and between key players and stakeholders of the agriculture and fishery mechanization program; 3) to commercialize the different agriculture and fishery machinery for sustainable development.

With BPRE as the lead agency, the program covers the three technologies to be implemented by the three cooperating and implementing agencies. The technology(ies) from each agency will be subjected to the technology commercialization process. This commercialization process of farm mechanization is the first attempt to prove that is such thing as commercialized mechanization. The major factor is people that operates and coordinate the commercialization process. Specific processes are included to make sure that all technologies are subjected to scrutiny under the lens of commercialization. Since these processes require the intervention of people, these must be well coordinated and management to show that there is an impact on people's lives and the result will have to the agriculture and fishery sectors.

The commercialization process comprises the 1) Information and Knowledge Management Phase which include the development of information education and communication (IEC) materials, promotion, information campaign, training and seminars, 2) Industrial Promotion Phase which take account of the accreditation of local manufacturers, 3) Sustained Adoption Phase which entails the provision of technical assistance to various stakeholders, including monitoring and evaluation activities, and 4) Process Documentation wherein the different commercialization process of the technologies are documented as basis for information sharing for future activities.

The program encompasses the different mature technologies recommended by the three implementing agencies. These are the BPRE Rice Hull-Fed Furnace which is being retrofitted to match the requirements of re-circulating mechanical dryers initially for rice and eventually for other grains; the B&S PhilRice Combine Harvester (1.3m model) which combines harvesting, threshing, cleaning and bagging operations in one; and FIDA Fiber Extraction Machines which consist of Mobile Spindle Machine and Multi-Fiber Decorticating Machine. The mobile spindle can extract good quality abaca fiber because it is safe and easy to operate due to the provision of clutch mechanism while the multi-fiber decorticating machine is an improvement of the traditional raspador decorticator used for ramie fiber extraction. Given these technologies, these will drumbeat the promotion, utilization, application and commercialization activities to realize the benefits of R&D results.

The R&D of the mechanization of A/F commercialization
Unsuspectingly, there is still R&D in commercialization of A/F mechanization. A great deal is anchored on the people that use these technologies and those that promote and commercialize them - meaning the people behind this initiative. Since it deals with people, this is the social aspect of it. How does this work? Well, people are the implementers, users and actors. The underlining aspect is the social factor which means that interactions, relationships, changes and transformations these technologies contribute, affect or have impact are the vital in the process. In order to handle these properly, it is the social science that magnifies this into an R&D concern. Within this commercialization process, researches could be derived in order to show what is happening to the technology vis-à-vis the people that are using and has made impact. This is now the area where BAR requests and encourages social scientists to prepare research activity to show interactions, transformation and changes for sustainable development. When this happens, BAR would believe that A/F mechanization truly contributed in the overall sustainability of the sector with the aid of commercialization.