The Department of Science and Technology \u2013 Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI) has finally come up with a solution to one of our abaca farmers\u2019 biggest concerns: a fiber-extracting machine that is both safe and effective.<\/p>\n
According to the DOST-FPRDI\u2019s Engr. Edward Paul S. Marasigan, \u201cFor a long time, many of our abaca farmers have had no choice but to use very hazardous fiber-extracting machines that expose them to moving blades. With the Institute\u2019s abaca decorticating machine, this hazard has been removed while still giving them high fiber quality and yield. This is an important development, especially since abaca is one of the country\u2019s most vital cash crops and top export earners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Known as the world\u2019s strongest natural fiber, abaca provides income to 76,000 farmers and tens of thousands of other Filipinos working in trading posts and processing plants. Fiber exports and manufacture of abaca cordage, yarns, fabrics and fiber crafts, as well as pulp and raw fiber, earn about USD 97 million per year.<\/p>\n
According to Marasigan, \u201cComing up with a safe and effective fiber-extracting device has been a long-time challenge for the country\u2019s abaca industry. Available technologies are typically labor-intensive, unsafe to use, and unable to yield fibers of consistent quality. We are glad we have been able to develop a machine that solves these concerns. At a fabrication cost of PhP 165,000 and a fiber recovery of 3.79%, our innovation is at par with the abaca decorticating devices available in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project was funded by the DOST-FPRDI and an output of Marasigan\u2019s MS in Agricultural Engineering thesis at the University of the Philippines Los Ba\u00f1os. His co-workers included Dr. Fernando O. Paras Jr., For. Victor G. Revilleza and Engr. Alvin F. Vardeleon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Science and Technology \u2013 Forest Products Research and Development Institute has finally come up with a solution to one of our abaca farmers\u2019 biggest concerns: a fiber-extracting machine that is both safe and effective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[62],"class_list":["post-2445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-dost-stii"],"zyndk8_nxtgen_metadata":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2445"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2448,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445\/revisions\/2448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}