The Committee on Agricultural and Fisheries Mechanization (CAFMech) Task Force on the Registration of Ownership of A&F Machinery and Equipment, in  its  February 23, 2022 meeting,  recommended to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) the prompt hiring of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (ABE) personnel to efficiently facilitate the A&F machinery registration.

Registration of all A&F machinery and equipment with the city and municipal agriculture offices of the local government units (LGUs), through their Agricultural Engineering Divisions/Sections/Units, is mandatory as provided for in Section 6.2.1 of the Department of Agriculture-DILG Joint Memorandum Circular (DA-DILG JMC) 2018-02, or the National Guidelines for the Registration of Ownership of A&F Machinery and Equipment and Article V, Section 19 of the Republic Act No. 10601, otherwise known as the Agricultural and Fisheries Mechanization Law.

However, LGUs lack of  manpower impedes its  compliance with the mandated registration, thus, the Bureau of Agricultural and Fisheries Engineering’s (BAFE) is  assisting LGUs in the creation of ABE units in their respective city, provincial, and municipal LGUs. 

The CAFMech Task Force also proposed linking the existing agricultural databases of the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization-Agricultural and Fisheries Mechanization and Engineering Resource Network’s (PhilMech-ERN) Registration of A&F Machineries and Equipment System (RAFMES) and BAFE’s Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Management Information System (ABEMIS) to speed up the ownership registration of A&F machinery. 

The harmonization of these databases will be further discussed in a separate meeting, and the agreements reached will be forwarded to the CAFMech Task Force for reference in the implementation of DA-DILG JMC 2018-02.

Further, resolutions were passed for the reiteration to DA regulatory agencies, state colleges and universities, and national government agencies the submission of A&F machinery and equipment registries to BAFE, as stipulated in Section 6.7 of said JMC, and the extension of DA-DILG JMC 2018-02 implementation, given the five-year enactment period ending in 2023. | JCL