Agriculture Business Week

Flood is one big problem of rice farmers in Barangay Papaya in San Antonio, Nueva Ecija. The place is low-lying so when it rains heavily ricefields here are submerged for more than a week, with water depth reaching 1.5 meters.

Like other farmers in the community, 74-year-old Aquilino Sicat and his son Mario have tried flood-tolerant rice. But of all the varieties he and Mario have planted in the 2008 wet season, says Aquilino, only PSB Rc68 rice survived.

According to Dr. Nenita V. Desamero, plant breeder at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), this is because PSB Rc68 is tolerant to abiotic stresses, particularly drought and submergence. So it is no wonder that Aquilino’s crop survived after being submerged twice in 1-meter water depth for a week.
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Organic rice farming can be a sustainable and profitable undertaking, especially if farmers will integrate growing fish and vegetables. That’s what Armand and Tere Perez-Saniano are trying to show in their Earthkeepers Learning Farm in Brgy. Lalig, Tiaong, Quezon.

Last October, they put up a 5,000-square meter showcase where they grew organic rice together with their favorite vegetables like tomato, eggplant, hot pepper, taro, soya and okra, as well as fish (tilapia and hito).

The half-hectare lot was divided into five rice paddies, separated by dikes that are about a meter wide. Along the dikes surrounding the rice plants in each paddy, they constructed a canal which was stocked with either tilapia or hito. That’s where they stayed when the rice field water ebbed. But if the water was maintained above the ground, the fish roamed the entire field, in the process feeding on the harmful insects that may have been attacking the rice plants. Their feces also served as fertilizer to the rice plants.

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Rice farmers can earn extra money by doing fish-farming in their ricefields.

Instead of fishing in rivers, they may opt to convert the lower portion of their ricefields into fishponds like what a farmer in Alicia, Isabela did.

Roberto Navarro of Barangay Paddad does this so-called rice-fish technology by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). He says that profit from his 1,700 square meter tilapia fishpond that used to be a mud pit is equivalent to an income from a 7,000 sq. m. rice land.

That’s because the stocks of this rice-fish technology demonstration cooperator of the BFAR Region II have reached 4 to 3 pieces a kilo. In fact some have weighed even half a kilo. At an average harvest weight of 250 grams, potential production is 1,806.25 kilos. This is worth a net income of P74,232 at A farmgate price of P70 per kilo.

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Many housewives still prefer the white or well-polished rice than the other kind of rice. To them, white rice, no matter what it costs, is still the best. This is so because white rice is more appetizing to eat.

But what they do not know is that while second-class milled rice or brown rice is less polished, it is, nutrition experts say, more palatable and nutritious.

Tiffany Lim, SL Agritech Corp. marketing assistant for rice, said “from the social point of view, white rice has become a status symbol to class-conscious but misguided Filipinos.”

The latest findings reveal that 69.2 percent of Filipinos are undernourished and 2.8 percent are underweight. This has resulted in many deaths, especially among children owing to malnutrition.

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Learning is said to be the key to almost everything, and this seems to be true also in farming.

Farmers who joined the Technical Cooperation Project 4 (TCP4) in Mindanao attest this. With the new farm technologies they learned in this technology transfer project, they were able to increase the productivity and profitability of their small farms.

One notable farmer who participated in this project of ARMM, PhilRice, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries-ARMM, and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is Kalim Lamug of Brar, Maguindanao.

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Following a large scale rice ratooning project in Ormoc City where some 500 hectares of irrigated rice farms 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 farmers in 17 adjoining barangays was very successful. The farmers 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.

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In separate farmers’ field days and fora conducted in Central Mindanao this September, farmers shared how they have benefited from the location-specific technology development (LSTD) program.

“Before, research studies were done only at DA-PhilRice and International Rice Research Institute. Now, we are doing research in our own barangay,” said Fred Daquil, LSTD farmer-innovator in Pigcawayan, North Cotabato.

Since he started farming, Daquil normally waits for technologies from the agricultural technologist (AT) assigned in their area. Now, Daquil is directly involved in technology development.

Gilbert Romarez, development coordinator of DA-PhilRice Midsayap Experiment Station (DA-PhilRice MES) emphasized LSTD is a research approach where farmers are the main actors in technology development. This will promote technology ownership at the farmer’s level.

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Hybrid rice seeds are produced by planting male and female parental lines in rows next to each other and allowing them to cross-pollinate. These are harvested from the female plant, which are then planted for hybrid rice cultivation.

Hybrid rice seed production (HRSP) is a tedious yet rewarding endeavor. Hybrid seeds sell at a minimum of about P60 per kilogram. A one-hectare farm that produces 1,500 kg hybrid seeds will have a gross sales of P90,000 while the same field if planted with commercial rice yielding 5,000 kg will have gross sales of about P65,000 based on the current price of paddy rice. While HRSP is more costly than commercial rice planting, the returns would justify the added cost.

However, not all regions and seasons are favorable for HRSP. It is not recommended for wet season planting. So far, there are only two major provinces/regions in the Philippines identified by PhilRice suitable for HRSP- Davao Oriental in Mindanao and Kalinga in Northern Luzon. In fact, farmer-cooperatives devoted to HRSP are in these regions, notably the Davao Oriental Seed Producers Cooperative (DOSEPCO), Kalinga Hybrid Rice Seed Producers Multi-purpose Cooperative, and the Tabuk Hybrid Rice Seed Producers Multi-purpose Cooperative. These cooperatives are stories of successful implementation of HRSP.

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Farmers in flood-prone areas has a reason to be glad, and it’s the release of the first submergence-tolerant rice in the country.

Called Submarino 1, NSIC Rc194 is IR64 infused with submergence tolerance gene (Sub 1), which the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the University Of California-Davis discovered from Indian rice variety FR13A. It was released on July 7 during the 27th Council Secretariat Meeting of the National Seed Industry Council.

“Submarino 1 is a non-genetically engineered rice plant that can survive, grow, and develop even after 10 days of complete submergence at vegetative stage,” says Dr. Nenita V. Desamero, PhilRice plant breeder and team leader of the on farm testing of submergence rice.

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Sticky, fluffy, and sweet. These usually come to mind when talking about glutinous rice.

Locally known as malagkit, glutinous rice is deeply embedded in the Filipino culture as it is the main ingredient in various rice cakes (kakanin), the traditional rice-based food Filipinos usually serve during fiestas and other special occasions.

This cultural value of the crop has been the reason of a 37-year-old agricultural engineer and farmer in Bagong Sikat, Munoz, Nueva Ecija in growing glutinous rice.

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Optimizing rice production in over 100,000 hectares(ha) planted to upland rice nationwide can significantly increase national rice production. And wise seed selection is important in achieving this goal. But the problem is upland rice varieties are scarce.

There are only more than 10 upland rice cultivars, yet there are over 70 rice strains for irrigated lowland environment, according to Dr. Edwin G. Hondrade, program director of the Pagkain Para sa Masa (PPSM) program based in University of Southern Mindanao. Given such limited strains, selection of seeds becomes more imperative.

Good thing that there are quality rice seeds in the market and there are also promising ones understudy.

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A Filipino nurse in Saudi Arabia went back to San Antonio, Nueva Ecija to manage the 40-hectare farm of his in-laws. But to hi dismay, he can’t grow rice in 10 ha. during wet season due to flood.

He is Gelises Ladores of Barangay Sto. Cristo. For 19 years, he said, he doesn’t plant during wet season because when flood occurs, the fields would be submerged for as long as 15 days and the water reaches waist level.

The luck of this 52-year-old farmer started to improve only in the 2008 wet season. He learned of the flood tolerant rice Swarna-Sub1, which can survive 10 days of complete submergence at vegetative stage, matures in 130-134 days, and grows as high as 75 cm-85 cm. He even went to PhilRice’s on-farm testing of submergence rice in Barangay Papaya to learn the technology.

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A government agency that provides technical assistance to the country’s rice farmers is out to help agribusinesses determine their social return on investment(SROI) as a measure of their true value and their socioeconomic impact on the host community.

The importance and benefits of SROI and how it is computed can also help agribusinesses determine the future site and direction of their expanding operations so-as to maximize their socioeconomic value.

This subject will be discussed comprehensively by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) through its Social and Agro-Industrial Ventures unit during the forthcoming Agrilink, Foodlink, and Aqualink, which constitute the country’s biggest and most prestigious annual international trade show on agribusiness, food and aquaculture.

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A 69 year-old in Buliran, Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija is surprised to harvest 345.6 cavans from a hectare planted to a hybrid rice reportedly exhibiting stunted (bansot) growth.

Severino G. Payumo became happier when he learned that because he harvested a whopping yield from the controversial SL8 hybrid rice of SL Agritech, he has been nominated to the provincial search for 10 outstanding hybrid rice farmers in Nueva Ecija for the 2008-2009 dry season.

At 50-kilogram per cavan, his yield was officially entered by the technical panel composed of representatives from SL Agritech, Department of Agriculture Regional Field Unit III (DARFU II1), PhilRice, Central Luzon State University, Provincial Agriculture Office, and Cabanatuan City Agriculture Office at 17.25 t/ha.

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