PinoyEcoFarmer

a lush ricefield

What does it take to convert a rice field cultivated the conventional way into an organic farm? One technique is to follow the system of Pastor Jerry Dionson of Humayan Ministry in Bago City, Negros Occidental. He has been helping the farmers in this rice bowl of Negros in converting conventionally farmed fields into organic farms.

Dionson and his farming colleagues have good reasons for converting rice fields into organic farms. For one, it is economical to produce rice the organic way since the farmers themselves are taught to make their own fertilizers and plant protection inputs. Usually, an organic farmer can grow organic rice at a cash expense of only about P14,700 per hectare. For another reason, the price of organic rice is much higher than the conventionally produced grains. The selling price is P60 to P80 per kilo.

As per the experience at the Humayan Ministry, the yield increases as the years pass by. In 2005, when they started converting their farms, the yield was only 75 cavans of palay per hectare. This increased to 87 cavans in 2006, 93 cavans in 2007, 115 cavans in 2008 and then 128 cavans in 2009.

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When Leticia Basubas of Barangay Maligaya, Science City of Munoz, Nueva Ecija decided that producing coffee from rice was her likeliest road to success, not a few raised their eyebrows and scoffed at her business sense: “Who will buy your coffee?” “Where will you sell it?” “It will not succeed as it is just an ordinary product.” “Anybody can produce it in the kitchen.” These were some of the reactions that reached Basubas in 1998 when the Green Ladies of Maligaya, a women’s club of which she was president, displayed its wares at a rice exhibit sponsored by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).

PhilRice was then introducing rice by-products as potential side enterprises for neighborhood farmers, and the institute had vouched highly for rice coffee, much as it did rice wine and rice-based chiffon cake, butsi and puto pao, rice brownies, rice waffles, rice nougat, rice-enriched pasta and rice noodles. Basubas, an agriculture graduate, was determined to pursue her “kapeng bigas” business. At that time she was working as a PhilRice administrative assistant. She eventually resigned from her job to plunge into rice-coffee making.

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Larry Milloroso, a 43-year old farmer from Barangay Dongon East in Numancia, Aklan is glad he has shifted to natural rice farming. Among the reasons he practices natural farming in his farm include getting a good harvest, additional profit, healthier environment, and chemical-free rice on the table.

Larry cultivates a 5,500-square meter irrigated ricefield that he planted to NSIC Rc 120 this season. In Aklan where farmers’ landholdings are commonly small and contiguous, this area can already be considered good enough to produce rice for family consumption and have some extra harvest for sale. He also grows latundan banana on 1,000 square meters, and mungbean and squash in the adjacent 1,000 square meters.

Larry learned about natural farming from PINA Foundation Inc., a non-government organization funded by the Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund which aims to help farmers increase production and income through sustainable agriculture. In 2003, PINA Foundation office in Kalibo, Aklan conducted a six-month season-long farm school in Numancia where Larry was one of the 15 enrollees.

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A 10-hectare organic farm in Galicia in Pidigan, Abra, has been drawing Cordillera farmers who want to learn about its sustainable and environmental farming practices.

Galicia Farms has served as a model to agriculture experts who advocate a shift back to traditional farming in this age of expensive chemical-based agriculture, said Pura Sumangil, director of Social Development Center (Sodec) of the Diocese of Bangued, which runs the farms. Sumangil said the farm has been promoting environment-friendly technology and has helped various groups in producing and marketing their products. The farm has a demonstration field and offers training on seed banking of traditional seeds, organic farming and organizational development. Sodec has been running the farm since the late 1990s after its former director, Sister Celerina Zabala, introduced organic farming in Bangued communities, Sumangil said.

“Even before the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010 (Republic Act 10068) came into the picture, the Department of Agriculture has been coming here to conduct training and lectures among farmers interested in organic farming. This farm has become their show window for the rest of the Cordillera,” she said.

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Carbonized rice hull is a crucial ingredient of bokashi organic fertilizer and can also be used in composting toilets and animal bedding. CRH results from the incomplete combustion of rice hulls under high heat and low oxygen conditions (pyrolysis). Pyrolysis causes the decomposition of organic materials such as lignin and cellulose, leaving a residue of carbon and mineral nutrients.

Click on Carbonized Rice Hull to view in pdf format.

The document was done by one of the members of Natural Farming Philippines.

I got hold of this publication “Likas-Kaya at Organikong Pagsasaka ng Palay” (Sustainable and Organic Rice Agriculture) by University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) Professor Oscar B. Zamora and his team. The Go-Organic! Philippines Movement and the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) helped launch the manual.

I think the manual is a very authoritative reference for farmers who want to venture into sustainable and organic rice production. The book is written in Filipino.

Ma Ceres P. Doyo wrote about it on her column the Human Face in the Philippine Daily Inquirer dated May 21, 2009. The title of the article is “Human Face : Free book on sustainable rice agriculture”. She wrote a general summary of what the manual is about.

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