Techno-Demo Farm

Through a donation of 5.1 hectares by Dr. & Mrs. Celerino Bayani Cornelio, Jr., the city government, with help from various departments of the National Government, built the Maria Valdez Cornelio Agriculture Techno Demo Farm, located in Barangay Tangcarang, Alaminos.

The Techno Demo Farm is under the control of City Agriculturist Ernesto S. De Leon. Currently Edgardo Buenaventura and Eduardo Bilano of Alos have been assigned as the facility's caretakers.

Under contract with the Department of Agriculture, Harbest Agribusiness Corp of Pasay City provides consultation through its Technician Jojo Frades. Mr. Frades said that Harbest has a multi-phase program to introduce new farming and propagation techniques, seeds varieties, and biological pest management.

The Techno Demo Farm has a Post Harvest Building to store the harvest and to prepare or process the harvest for market. In the Post Harvest Building are two new techniques of drying palay (rice grains with the husk) are undergoing testing and optimization; a Kerosene-Electro-Mechanical (KEM) Drier and a Flat Bed Drier.

After its initial testing, Mr. Frades and Mr. Buenaventura said that KEM Drier could dry 30 cabans of palay in 3 hours, which is only 25% as efficient as the Flat Bed Drier.

They are currently waiting for replacement bearing parts and components for the electrical controls; the replacement parts are not available locally. An apprehension of the farmers, according to Mayor Fontelera, is the additional labor needed if there is a failure or problem with the KEM Drier. This is because the palay is circulated up and down its chimney using conveyor belt, if the drier cannot operate the farmers have to unload the palay from the conveyor system, which means climbing up a ladder to reach the palay at the top.

Instead of kerosene, the Flat Bed Drier uses the readily available outer husks of the rice grain as its heat source. During the milling process, the "clean rice" ready for cooking, is separate from its outer husk. At many of the rice mills the husks accumulate creating a problem for the mill owners on its disposal. Before using the Flat Bed Drier, the farmers go to the rice mills and gather the husk into sacks. They then bring the sacks of palay and husk to the drying area where they empty the palay sacks into a concrete flat bed which has a perforated grate lining the bottom. Then they fire up the kiln fueled by the husk and start up a diesel engine to power the large circulation fan. This fan draws hot air from the kiln and forces the heated air underneath the grate where the palay has been placed. The heated air rises through the grate and in between the palay. The remainder of the drying time is spent refueling the engine or the kiln and stirring the palay to ensure uniform drying.

According to Mr. Buenaventura, the farmers prefer the Flat Bed Drier because it's easier to use and more cost efficient. Depending the moisture content of the rice grains, 120 cabans of palay can be dried in seven hours using six liter of diesel and they can cut the number of workers by a fourth. Since the drier is inside the building, the farmers are not at the mercy of Mother Nature. If it starts raining while they are drying with the current technique of passive solar drying on cement or asphalt, there would be a mad rush to gather the rice grains, re-sack them and cover the sacks with a tarp before they get wet. With the current method the rice grains may not be dried completely leading to molding and spoilage but with the Flat Bed Drier they continue drying until the palay is properly dried.

Some improvements planned are fully insulating the kiln to aviod heat loss and a chimney to draw the evaporating moisture outside of the building.

According to Rodrigo Bragado of Tangcarang, he has spent for 5 liter of diesel and 4 workers to dry 100 sacks of palay. He will be drying until 10:00 p.m. in the evening to properly dry this batch. If he had used the old way, he would have spent for wages of 15-20 workers, which includes their meals and snacks for 1-2 days of drying. He likes this drying method because it is safer and saves on damage. If he dried the palay on the highway, he has to watch out for cars, trucks, and buses and there are less broken palay because the tires did not crush them.

Local framers like Mr. Bragado are taking advantages using the Flat Bed Drier for free. The free use will continue during its testing but eventually the city government will pass an ordinance establishing the usage fee of the Flat Bed Drier which will be use to pay overhead expenses, such as maintenance, electricity, personnel, etc. There are only two casual workers and a consultant manning this large facility. Eventually, the city government will be building more Flat Bed Driers in other barangay.