Pursuant to Executive Order No. 86 dated March 31, 1999 issued by His Excellency President Joseph E. Estrada and Item No. 3 of the Food Security Covenant ’99 at Holiday Inn, Clark Field, Pampanga, all Provincial Governors throughout the country committed to organize their Provincial Agricultural Engineering Unit/Office as full time to complement extension services and serve as counterpart of the Department of Agriculture-Regional Agricultural Engineering Group (DA-RAEG) in the planning and implementation of irrigation, postharvest facilities, agricultural and fishery mechanization infrastructure at the field level for the Food Security Program of the National Government.

The Provincial Government of Isabela is the first province in the region to respond to this call. In 2000, under the leadership of the late and former Governor Benjamin G. Dy, the Agricultural Engineering Division was created and put under the umbrella of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) as one of its regular divisions.

The passage of RA Nos. 8435 and 10601, otherwise known as the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) of 1997 and the Agriculture and Fisheries Mechanization (AFMech) Law of 2013, respectively, aim to modernize and mechanize the Philippine agriculture and fisheries sector in order to alleviate poverty and ensure national food security.

The implementation of these laws largely involves the provision, establishment, strengthening, operation and maintenance, research and development, extension and/or regulation and funding of irrigation, post-harvest and agro-processing, farm-to-market roads, agricultural and fisheries machineries, infrastructure and facilities at national and local which are within the sphere of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (ABE).

Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) no. 02, series of 2020, between the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Civil Service Commission (CSC), and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) otherwise known as “Implementing Guidelines on the Strengthening and Establishment of the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Groups of the Local Government Units (LGUs)”.

The Agricultural Engineering Division was renamed to Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Division and was transferred to the Provincial Governor Office as stated in Section 6.1 of JMC No. 02, s. 2020.

MANDATE

Agricultural Engineering Division is mandated to plan, execute and monitor the implementation of provincial agricultural mechanization and infrastructure programs, projects and activities.

SERVICES

• Validate proposed site for establishment of Small Scale Irrigation Projects (SSIPs), farm equipment and other farm structures in coordination with the Department of Agriculture (DA) and other government agencies;

• Prepare and/or evaluate all necessary engineering documents as attachment to a proposed Agri-fishery related project and supervise the construction and monitoring of Small Scale Irrigation Projects (SSIPs), farm equipment and other farm structures;

• Conduct performance testing, evaluation and inspection of farm equipment and inspection of farm structures in coordination with the Agricultural Machinery Testing and Evaluation Center;

• Coordinate the licensing, registration and regulation of farm equipment and farm structures; and
• Act as Resource Person in the conduct of trainings/seminars related to Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering.