DAVAO CITY—South Cotabato now has one of the biggest rice-processing complexes in Mindanao, with its biomass-fed milling facility able to mill 1.5 million tons of rice per hour.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) called its newest center, the Rice Processing Complex (RPC) III, in Santo Niño town of South Cotabato, to strategically serve the Cotabato provinces that have taken the textbook credit as the rice bowl of the country.
DA Soccsksargen Regional Executive Director Amalia Jayag-Datukan said the new rice-processing center in Barangay Ambalgan “provides the postharvest needs of 5,000 farmers cultivating 10,000 hectares of rice lands of Santo Niño town and nearby municipalities.”
The DA spent P23.725 million for the construction of grain-processing and storage facilities; P6 million for capital operations; P1.5 million for capability-building; and P1 million for administrative and management requisites.
The complex consists of two biomass-fed mechanical dryer, a modern rice mill and a storage facility.
The rice-processing facility can mill 1.5 tons of palay per hour, and each of its mechanical dryers can accommodate 600 sacks of palay in an eight-hour operation.
Big rice traders and planters have already patronized the center, according to the information office of the Regional Agriculture and Fisheries Division of the DA in Soccsksargen region.
Rice farmer and buy-and-sell operator Liwayway Andigan said she chose to deliver her palay to RPC III “because of its high milling-recovery rate of up to 65 percent.”
Firmus Farm Service Cooperative (FFSC) Chairman Jaime Junsay corroborated Andigan’s point, saying “there are instances that the milling-recovery rate using RPC III has reached 72 percent.”
FFSC is a farmer cooperative based in Koronadal City which manages the operations of the facility along with the local government unit of Santo Niño, National Food Authority and DA regional office in Soccsksargen.
Andigan said the mechanical-drying facilities were the advantage of RPC III.
“I noticed that the milled rice is clearly white and has lighter spots. This facility is very efficient and really meets our milling requirements,” she said.