IRRI: Orientation

Orientation was first on the agenda. ID card and a quick tour around the campus was given. I also met some of the staff at the Postharvest and Mechanization section where I would be based throughout the next 2 months. I was shown the office and the 3D printer that I’d be using.

One of the German Phd students had said there was issues with printing complicated builds. Even with the use of support structures the parts could potentially break. This is an issue I’ve already experienced. However, the fact that I’m now at IRRI I can try to design some custom parts for rice mechanisation here.

The surrounding area is beautiful. At 7am Friday morning in searing humidity, I took this photo of a nearby forest park in the distance.

National Park Reserve: You can see clouds circling the top of the mountain

Later in the morning there was a mini field trip that I couldn’t miss. Simon one of the staff kindly asked me to come. They were going to a farm that is connected with University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) and IRRI. There was animal manure that needed to be composted using some from of mechanisation. Interestingly I noticed that all the work was being done manually. Very labour intensive to say the least.

Farmers manually moving animal manure

The farm had numerous feeding lots for cattle. There was an area for breeding heifers and young cows. There was a barn for new born calves. The breed is one I’m not familiar with but they seemed like cows that could have been used for milk production since no calves were at foot.

Feeding lots for cattle