Agriculture Business Week

Armando “Nandy” Reyes 57, was smiling when he welcomed us at his residence in the town proper of San Antonio, Nueva Ecija in late 2008. He looked very much the same as the farmer whom we interviewed in 2007, except that he appeared happier and jubilant.

He was jubilant because the submergence-tolerant rice variety that he planted in a critically submerged farm in Barangay Papaya of their town during the wet season gave him an exceptionally good harvest.

It seems to Nandy that he has hit a jackpot by planting the variety Swarna-Sub 1, an inbred rice variety bred in India that was introduced to San Antonio farmers before the 2008 wet season through the collaboration of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and the Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO) of the San Antonio local government unit.

Both IR64-Sub 1 and Swarna-Sub 1 were introduced to San Antonio farmers during the launching of an IRRI collaborative project titled “Implementation Plans to Disseminate Submergencetolerant Rice Varieties and Associated New Production Practices to Southeast Asia”. The project is funded by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and PhilRice is IRRI’s collaborator in the Philippines.

Unlike other San Antonio farmers who bought seeds of IR64-Subl during the launching ceremony, Nandy got seeds of Swarna-Sub 1, which he learned was late maturing at 135 days and had a milling recovery of 35-36 kg/50 kg or 70 percent.

His farm in Barangay Papaya is critically submerged during the wet season. For the last 15 years, Nandy had never planted any crop during the wet season because he knew for sure that he would be at the losing end if he does so.

His farm starts to be submerged in the first week of August. With continuous rains, the farm could be continuously flooded for two weeks, thereby completely submerging the rice plants if it is not late maturing. It is only one week after the rains have stopped that the rice plants would become visible.

With Swarna-Sub 1, he can plant earlier than majority of the farmers in the area and he does not have to worry about submergence. He tried the variety only in 3.5 ha and when the flood came, his plants were already tall. After panicle initiation, the height of the water was still 20 cm. At harvest, the water was still 5 cm deep.

“When I saw that my crop was surviving from submergence, I immediately concluded that the variety truly can withstand prolonged submergence,” Nandy said.

His two farm hands are even happier than him because they are already sure that they are going to have a share from the harvest. Unlike in the past 15 years when they got nothing during the wet season, they are sure this time of getting 35 cavans of palay from the harvest.

From a parcel of 2.5 ha, Nandy harvested 12,710 kg or an average of 5,084 kg/ ha. The remaining parcel of 1 ha gave him 5,466 kg. All in all, he harvested a total 18,166 kg or an average of 5,190 kg/ha.

That’s not bad at all for an area that was futile every wet season. In fact, his neighbors said it was like he won in the sweepstakes. His yield increase was very high for the last 15 years; it increased to more than 5 t/ha.

The National Food Authority had already offered to buy his harvest at P 17/ kg but at the time of our visit, Nandy had not yet accepted the offer.

Most of his production cost were due to seeds (P1,500/bag), fertilizers (R10,800 for 4 bags of complete fertilizer and 2 bags of ammonium sulfate), land preparation, transplanting, and gibberellic acid.

For the wet season in 2009, Nandy plans to plant no less than 10 ha. For the dry season, he plans to plant it only in a small area where he will produce the seeds for his next wet season crop.

SEED PRODUCTION
Primo de Guzman of Barangay Lawang Kupang, on the other hand, was the source of IR64-Sub 1 seeds that San Antonio farmers planted last wet season. He planted 40 kg of seeds in 1 ha during the 2008 dry season and harvested a total of 95 bags of clean seeds (40 kg per bag), which he sold at P1,200 a bag.

His harvest hardly met the demand from San Antonio, yet it already gave him a gross of P 114,000 and a net income of almost P100,000. Actually, he could have harvested more if his crop was not attacked by stemborers during the reproductive stage.

Primo’s farm is not submerged during the wet season, which makes it ideal for seed increase. Last wet season, he planted only 16 kg of IR64-Sub 1 to 0.5 ha because he conducted other demos on submergence-tolerant rice. His yield from the IR64Sub 1 was 45 cavans, about the same as his harvest during the previous dry season.

He also planted 5 kg of Raeline 10, a submergence tolerant line developed at PhilRice Midsayap; and harvested only 10 cavans. Asked why his harvest from this line was low, Primo said this was because the roots of many seedlings were broken or cut during pulling and, hence, only a small area was planted.

His wet season harvest of both IR64 Sub 1 and Raeline 10, on one hand, were sold at P13.20/kg, yet the government’s promised to buy his palay at r17 a kilo. In the meantime, he plans to plant IR64-Sub] in 0.5 ha and Raeline 10 in 0.25 ha in the dry and wet seasons of 2009.