Rice Tariffication Survival Strategy of a Small Town (Part 3)

In this age of borderless economy,  the small Filipino rice farmer has become the victim. The enthronement of unlimited rice importation may have dropped rice prices that benefited consumers,  but it further impoverished the artisanal rice farmer who can't improve his economies of scale due to several factors like mechanization,  access to cheap inputs,  government support,  etc.

Strategies for the survival of the farmers should immediately be put in place.  For the small town of Bingawan,  safety nets had been initiated for  two decades now.

The late former Mayor Zafiro Palabrica, an agriculturist and farmer always advocated farm diversification.  In the late 1980s up to the mid1990s he pushed for a diversified farm system throughout the small town.  He advocated mulberry trees for silk and as fodder for goats and later deer. He also lined the roads of Bingawan with pili trees and pushed other farmers to plant all kinds of fruits and banana both for food and for sale. Vegetables became a common sight throughout the municipality because of his encouragement to improve malnutrition and as added income for farmers who often suffer from low prices during the peak of harvest season.

Now Bingawan under the leadership of his sons is a diversified economy based on farming. Farm products come out from the different baranggays year round.  Bingawan farmers compete in volume and quality with their counterparts in the third district of Iloilo. 

Lately,  many public markets sell live chickens and ducks which vendors say come from Bingawan. This shows that diversification has become an institution in the town.

More is coming in the future, says Board Member Matt Palabrica.  He and his brother Mayor Mark is encouraging is further productivity in the SFRs so that the farms within it's coverage are made productive year round. Additionally,  they want to encourage tourism in many forms. Tourism is the biggest economic activity worldwide today. The municipality plans to join this worldwide economic phenomenon as another income stream for its residents.
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THE TOWN OF A HUNDRED (MINI) LAKES

Bingawan is now known as the town of a hundred lakes, albeit,  small.  Through the efforts of its mayors,  the late Zafiro Palabrica and later his son Matt,  the town was recipient to government's Small Farm Reservoir project of the Department of Agriculture. The project builds farm reservoirs usually in the higher parts of the farm.  Mayor Zafiro embraced the project because of the terrain of the municipality where it was impossible to build an irrigation system to benefit the most number of farmers.  His son Mayor Matt appreciated his father's initial effort and sought to ask for more units from the Department of Agriculture so to date,  the town has 100 SFRs spread all over. The municipality is now known as the recipient of the most number of SFRs nationwide.

With SFRs, each isolated group of farms can be served by impounded water located higher than the farms. Water flows down by gravity.
The SFRs serves as rain water harvesters where runoff from the hills are channelled to the dammed area and stored. These are also seeded with tilapia, sea bass
 (acclimatized to fresh water) and other food  species.  Inevitably,  indigenous species like hito,  snake head (Dalag) also populate. Even the naturalized Gambezi or mosquito fish are seen in many of the ponds,  a healthy sign of a balanced aqua ecosystem.

The SFRs have improved the productivity of the farm clusters.  Rice growing season  is extended and with sufficient water, higher yields were achieved. The remaining water after the rice season was used to grow vegetables.  Using integrated farming,  the large dikes  were also utilized because of readily available water.  All these improved productivity was supervised by the municipality's agriculture office.

The end result of the municipality's intervention through the installation of SFRs is increased productivity per farmer and his family. Not only that the farmers had better rice yields,  they also have diverse sources of income,  from rice to vegetables  to fish to poultry and small scale pig raising. Improved nutrition also came in because vegetables and fish are available without added cost to the families.

Mayor Matt has been replaced by his younger brother and he is now Provincial Board Member. Mayor Mark is now pursuing the success left by his brother and his father by further increasing the productivity of the SFRs. He is now mulling new projects related to SFRs as well as those taking off from them. With the interest of the people in SFRs, he foresees that they can draw in both local and foreign tourists.  This means more effort to produce more so that there is surplus for sale to outsiders. There is also the potential for leisure and recreation,
which is now a huge industry world wide.

All these productivity started with just a project to store water for the dry season  which is often harsh and unforgiving to small farmers in the town of Bingawan,  now known as the Town of a Hundred (mini) Lakes.

Rice tariffication? How a small Iloilo town copes with this crisis (2)


Part 2: Agro-forestation as an upstream link in overall increased productivity

At the height of the craze to reforest the bald areas of the province during the first incumbency in the 1990s of former Governor Arthur Defensor Sr., then Mayor Zafiro Palabrica, the father of the now Mayor Mark and Provincial Board Member Matt, worked to plant and establish his own brand of reforestation. He promoted various types of trees like mulberry,  pili nut, food trees like jack fruit,  and,  leguminous trees like madre de cacao and the fast growing ipil-ipil. Mulberry,  madre de cacao and ipil-ipil also serve as forage for animals including wild deer that is sometimes sighted among the grasslands of the town.

The increased green cover in the whole municipality served many purposes: improved the micro climate,  increased soil fertility,  gave added income and food for the communities. Selective pruning also provided firewood for the communities which otherwise could have ravaged existing sparse brush and low lying residual trees. Leguminous trees are fast growing and when cut back or pruned for firewood grow fast to restore their foliage.  The leaves shed off when harvesting the branches decompose and become rich organic matter used to improve soil fertility.  Thus,  the agro-forestation strategy of the late mayor Zafiro became the ground work that his sons also continued and further promoted. 

The tree forests that Mayor Zafiro and later,  Mayor Matt, became the upstream link that restored the agricultural productivity of the municipality. From the seasonal farm cropping system such as rice,  corn and sugarcane that rendered most of the farmers impoverished and their families hungry during lean times (July to early September), farm production became year round because during the lean season that coincided with the rainy months,  non traditional crops like vegetables,  fruits and root crops  are produced. Thus,  the reliance on rice as a major crop has diminished yet farm productivity was even increased.

These types of leaders,  father and sons, who themselves are farmers,  led  their constituents to think differently and thus consciously devise actions not only to survive but also grow despite pressures and stresses in the environment, be it natural or political or economic.  (to be continued)

Rice Tariff Crisis? This small town is coping

Rice tariffication? How a small Iloilo town copes with this crisis (1)

With palay prices plummeting to P7.00 per kilo which is 54% of the computed production cost,  the farmers are suffering, worse than ever before.  For every kilo they sell,  they lose P5.85 and so,  not only do they lose their capital for the next crop,  they don't have the rice and money to feed their families.

That while we cannot avoid importation as a result of our joining the world trade organization,  we have slept on our preparations for the eventual entry of imports.  Our wise men were not only unwise,   many of them probably bribed by the traders who now corner the bulk of importation.

Importation is now here and a sad reality.  We cannot just sit down and cry.  We have to act to stave off total disaster,  beginning with the death of rice farming. And this small 6th class Iloilo town, named Bingawan is showing the way to coping and rising above the crisis called rice tariffication law.

Investing in SFRs.

While other towns were busy with highly visible projects,  Bingawan led by its former mayor, the late Zafiro Palabrica and continued by his successor,  his sons,  Matt and now Mark, availed of as many small farm reservoirs (SFR) project of the Department of Agriculture and the Iloilo Provincial Government.  The SFRs are the upstream link of the farming chain in areas and countries where massive and high financed irrigation systems are impractical.  SFRs provide the vital component of farming: water because without water,  there is practically no farming that can be undertaken.  To date,  there are 100 units of SFRs throughout the small town. Water in the SFRs are used to irrigate the rice and high value vegetables grown by the farmers.  Fish like tilapia, hito and bulgan were seeded into the ponds, providing needed protein at a low price to the families in the communities around the SFRs. These component was launched years ago with the support of SEAFDEC and the Iloilo Provincial Government. (to be continued)

MUSHROOM FARMING AS AN ANCHOR PROJECT

Something’s mushrooming, literally, in the rural town of San Enrique, Iloilo: a Mushroom Industry Development Project, led by the siblings of the now mayor, retired General (PA) Ramona Palabrica-Go. Mr. Joe Cape, husband of the mayor’s sister, Amy, manages the farm which is co-financed by brother Greg Palabrica, still based in the US. The Palabrica siblings, all of them retired or retiring respectively from their careers have decided collectively to give back to the town and their town-mates in whatever way possible. They have registered their family enterprise as San Enrique Agri-venture (S.E.A.) Enterprise. Mayor Palabrica- Go was the first to decide when she ran and won as Mayor of the town. The others decided on the mushroom project because of two basic reasons: it is a healthy food touted to be medicinal and that everybody who engages in the project can earn money. The project will also be the first of the many they have envisioned for the town. The first investment is in the laboratory and the growing building. The major concern of mushroom production is in the availability of quality spawns.With a small laboratory, the project is assured of a regular supply of spawns. The growing area should also be cool, sanitized and free from contaminants since mushrooms, especially the oyster species are sensitive to the environment. To perfect the technology, Joe went through a short course at UPLB and tapped the services of Mr. Bert Cablas, a teacher-entrepreneur based in San Miguel, Iloilo who had been successfully growing oyster mushrooms for more than 15 years and is the major supplier of supermarkets and hotels in Iloilo City. Bert Cablas transferred his technology to them unselfishly. Producing Oyster Mushroom. Joe follows the standard technology for producing oyster mushroom spawns. The spawns are first cultured in Potato Dextrose Agar medium and then transferred to a sorghum bed inside a sterilized whiskey or rum bottles. Once the mycelium have grown and ready for culture they are seeded to fruiting bags of sterilized saw dust based culture media and placed in the growing chambers. In two to three weeks, the mushroom buttons start to form mycelia and emerge from the tiny holes cut on all sides of the plastic fruiting bags. In a few more days, the mushroom buttons emerge from the holes and start to grow. In three to four days, the mushrooms have fully grown and are ready to harvest. The fully grown mushrooms are fully pulled out of the holes they have grown in to avoid rotting and contaminating the rest of the fruiting bags. The harvested oyster mushroom are sorted, cleaned and weighed according to the packaging. 125 gram packs are sold at P35.00/pack while 250 gram packs are sold at P65.00. Kilogram packs sell at P250.00 ex farm At present, the farm produces 7-10 kilograms daily on about 7,000 fruiting bags. The building has a capacity of 20,000 bags capable of producing between 20-25 kilograms daily. Joe is now developing the market for the fresh mushroom. The present harvest is not even enough to fill the demand in the community but Joe is already exploring the market of Passi City which is about 4.5 kilometers away. Efforts are also being made to develop other forms of products so that all the produce of the farms and ultimately, the farmer-cooperators will be sold out and both the enterprise and the farmer cooperators are able to realize stable income from the industry. Grow-out and Reach Out Scheme: Mayor Ramona Palabric-Go is keen on the project because of the high returns for the industry participants. Right now, she is hard at work launching livelihood projects so that the constituents of her town who are landless but have a few square meters of space in their yards can avail of the grow-out program where the S.E.A. will provide them with ready to grow fruiting bags at a low price while assuring them of a stable high priced market. She sees the enterprise launched by her siblings as an anchor project in mushroom production. Her sister Amy said that the laboratory is easy to expand since there is still space behind and the capacity can be increased to meet the demand for fruiting bags to be sold at cost to the unemployed housewives, out of school youth, indigenous people and other participants who want stable income from the project. “The municipality and other concerned agencies like the DSWD will work hand in hand to train these unemployed constituents and we will find a good financing scheme where they will also invest a small fund so that there will be ‘ownership’ of the project and also to ensure that they will not think this is a dole out and therefore take good care of it”, Mayor Palabrica-Go said. Mr. Bert Cablas, their consultant who had been in the business for a long time now said that a small mushroom livelihood is ideal for the unemployed. If one targets a daily income of P500.00, he needs to produce between 2-4 kilos of oyster mushroom daily. So he needs about 200-250 fruiting bags which can be accommodated in about 6 square meters of space. The housing conceived will utilize roofing and walling materials like cogon and coconut leaves because they are naturally cool and serves as insulators from ambient heat. Coconut shingles are easy to make and cogon can be gathered from abandoned land so farmers and other cooperators will not need to spend much for their housing which shall be one of their counterparts. By products of mushroom production: The exhausted fruiting bags are ideal as growing media for ornamentals and vegetables. The farmer-cooperators can launch an additional livelihood project once the mushroom grow out has started. They can plant vegetables and high value ornamentals either in plots or in pots. The organic media is nutrient rich after it had been fully decomposed by the mushroom which is a fungus. Fungi feed on cellulose contained in sawdust resulting to a rich organic medium for plants. The future of mushroom in San Enrique: For more than thirty years our town had hibernated and we now have the opportunity to make things right for our people. Our farmers and entrepreneurs are focused on low value farming of rice sugarcane and corn. Coffee and cacao are a small industry but have the potential to expand. With so many sawmills in our town due to the farmed trees available, there is a large amount of sawdust which are only used as land fill. These are a resource that can earn money for mushroom farmers. “I am upbeat about making mushroom as one of our major products. While only a limited number of our people can grow rich in sugarcane and rice, mushroom is one industry that everybody can participate and grow with”, said Mayor Palabrica-Go.

HOW TO MAKE SOY MILK AND YOGURT

My leg injury has forced me to stay at home this last two weeks but it has not prevented me from doing more hands-on technology acquisition. I had been intrigued about the soy yogurt which they say is easy to make using almost the same method used for milk. I already know how to make soy milk and had bought last year, a blender with an attachment specifically designed to extract milk from soybeans. The attachment has simplified soy milk making and it takes just about 2 minutes to make a batch of soy milk.

Begin by making soy milk:

To make one liter of soy milk, you would need about 125 grams of dried soybeans soaked for about 12 hours where water is replaced two to three times. For the standard blender, liquify the soaked soy milk until the whole batch is finely ground. Strain the milk in a clean cotton cloth (katsa which is flour sack cut into manageable size is best and cheapest material). Set aside the solids which is called “okara” in other countries and “sapal” in our dialect. It is protein rich and is added to meat as extender or can be cooked solely as a burger. Boil the soymilk for 15 minutes to fully cook it. You would be able to get about one liter of milk after the process.

To make soy milk yogurt:

Add about two (2) tablespoons of sugar to the soy milk and stir until dissolved. Sugar will act as feed for the lacto-baccilus that coagulates the milk into yogurt. Cool soy milk to 45% Celsius and add yogurt starter and place this inside a yogurt incubator. I made mine out of a styrofoam ice chest where I installed a thermostat so that the temperature inside the incubator is maintained at 46-50 degrees Celsius. Don't cover the lid of the soymilk tightly or if safe or hygienic, remove the cover to allow air circulation. Incubate for 6-8 hours or overnight. By morning, you will have soy yogurt.

If you don't have an incubator, just look for an ice ice chest. To maintain the desired temperature, heat water to about 55 degrees Celsius and pour inside the ice chest and place the container of soymilk on top using some containers to act as pontoon. Check temperature every 3 hours and add heated water when temperature has dropped. I am into my third batch of soy yogurt which probably cost me just P15.00 per liter.

STAND ASIDE HYBRID RICE, HERE COMES OPEN POLLINATED BSD-300

Hybrid rices are now the talk of the town with its potential to double and even triple the yields of rice farms. It is being promoted by Asian governments as the answer to the perennial problem of shortage. With the breeding perfected by a Chinese scientist several decades ago, hybrid rice seeds are now a monopoly of large companies mostly multi-nationals which saw mega income by cornering the production of seeds.

Hybrid rice seed production is a highly technical process that needs expertise. But the rewards are high because of the margin of profit. Even producing a mere 2 tons of rice seeds per hectare, a multi-natonal company can easily gross P400,000 per hectare every six months, more than what they can get from a hectare of export banana. Thus, large business jumped into the band wagon. The small farmer having limited expertise in hybridization will have no option but to buy the seeds being sold at exorbitant prices.

Hybrid rice seed companies claim a range of 9-16 metric tons of rice produced per hectare, while open pollinated varieties released by rice research institutions can barely reach seven metric tons at controlled conditions and much less under farmer conditions. Thus farmers are attracted to buying hybrid rice seeds because of the prospect of having higher yield that translate to higher income perunit of farm land.

What if farmers can grow their own open pollinated rice strains that can approximate if not out yield hybrid rice varieties? What if these rice varieties are not only high producers but have good eating qualities as well? The benefits are practically limitless! They will then get out from the clutches of large business selling hybrid rice seeds and they can produce their own seeds as well as sell to other rice farmers at a more affordable price. Hybrid seeds sold by multinational companies cost P3,000 per 15 kilograms or a whooping P200/kilogram. A farmer needs 15 kilograms of rice seeds per hectare. If farmers can produce their own they can under cut these commercial sellers at even half the price.

Comes now BSD-300, an open pollinated rice variety developed by Freddie Noriel of Nueva Ecija coming from Indonesia. Noriel painstakingly improved the original strain by selection and the

strain can now produce an average of 300 cavans per hectare maily due to its long panicles and large grains growing from a dense multiple tiller.

Planted like the hybrid seeds, meaning about 15 kilograms of seeds per hectare at one seedling per hill spaces about 25 x 25 centimeters, the strain is so vigorous that at maximum growth stage, the productive tillers practically crowd each other, even more densely than hybrid varieties.

I bought a few kilograms of seeds from a Manila dealer last February and it was only last June that we planted this at Brgy. Lapayon, Leganes because nobody was interested to lend or lease me their land in my home town. We simulated farmer conditions, meaning, sparingly applying chemical fertilizers at a rate of only 2 bags of 14-14-14 and one bag urea per hectare. The farmer cooperator also insisted not to use any chemical pesticide since he intended to mill the rice for their own consumption if we cannot sell the produce as seeds. For more than two decades now, my friend had been eating pesticide free rice.

The BSD-300 plants are now 45 days old and almost at panicle emergence stage. Comparing the growth so far with those of the neighbors, one can immediately notice the difference. The tillers of BSD-300 are twice as many and robust as the open pollinated variety. The leaves are wider and longer. The neighboring OP had already been sprayed 5 times with insecticide while the BSD 300 never got a single spray because the farmer never believed in pesticides as an option.

BSD-300 compares well with this hybrid rice variety

According to the developer, BSD-300 will mature at 105 days compared to most hybrids which mature in 120 days or so. We are now observing other parameters such as the length of the panicles and the number of grains per panicle. Also eagerly awaited is the ultimate indicator which is the actual yield in the 1,000 sq.meters which will simply be extrapolated ten times to get the yield per hectare. If Noriel is to be believed, this batch of BSD-300 will yield about 350 cavans per hectare, comparative if not better than any hybrid variety now being planted in the country.