The Iloilo provincial agriculture office turned over on Thursday PHP7.9 million worth of warehouse project to the Batad municipal government.

The project, capable of holding about 10,000 sacks of palay at 50 kilograms each, features a milling facility supplied by the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech).

It will complement the nearby rice processing complex donated by the Department of Agriculture through its Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, along with a drying facility also provided by PhilMech.

“This is provincial government support for our rice program. Rice is our primary commodity in Iloilo, and we fully support our value chain,” Provincial Agriculture Office acting head Felina Grace Basco said in a media interview.

The project in Barangay Nangka will be managed by the Batad Multipurpose Cooperative, which has 216 members.

The facility will serve palay produce from Batad and neighboring municipalities in northern Iloilo, depending on the cooperative’s capacity.

“We are looking forward to serving in times of our harvest during the first cropping, which is sometime around August,” Basco said.

The cooperative will buy palay, mill and dry it, and then sell it. Farmers also have the option to use only the drying facility and store their produce elsewhere.

The cost of services is yet to be determined.

Basco said the cooperative obtained PHP3 million in seed funding from Senator Francis Pangilinan through the Sagip-Saka Program. They plan to allocate PHP2.5 million of the amount for a hauling truck.

She said they are also looking forward to qualifying for a farmer’s loan through the provincial government’s cooperative office.

Along with the Batad warehouse, the provincial government allocated PHP20 million for a rice processing warehouse in San Rafael town this year. (PNA)