Following a large-scale rice ratooning projcet in Ormoc City where some 500 hectares of irrigated rice farms were ratooned last March to May, the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) program is bent on pushing the adoption of the technology up to the year 2013.
Dr. Frisco Malabanan, GMA rice program director, said that the ratooning project pushed by Mayor Eric Codilla involving 274 fanners in 17 adjoining barangays was very successful. The fanners were able to produce 20 to 30 cavans per hectare in addition to the more than 100 cavans per hectare of the original harvest.
Ratooning is a technique where the rice stubbles after harvest are allowed to produce new growth that will bear new panicles that are harvestable in just 45 to 60 days later. This is an inexpensive way of producing a second harvest of rice from the same plants because there’s no need to plow the land, no need to plant new seedlings and only one sack of fertilizer is applied per hectare. There’s less likelihood that the crop will be damaged by pests and diseases or by inclement weather because the growing period is very short.