MODELING RICE-BASED INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEMS IN ILOILO

The instructions of Hon. Governor Arthur Defensor for more food production necessitates the shift from the conventional systems to a more holistic approach where the farmers are taught how to harness every factor to make his farming not only successful but also sustainable. For this, we will not only revisit proven farming technologies but also those which are emerging and gradually establishing themselves as part of the mainstream technologies which may help us in Iloilo to sustain and even improve food production output.

The basic definition of an integrated farming system is the principle of planning and implementing a farming approach where all components or features are inter-related and supportive of all other sub-components. There is usually a focal system or crop, for example, rice, corn vegetables or pigs. In a truly rice-based integrated farming, there would be rice taking up a major portion of the area but all other features would be supportive of the main crop.

Rice being a heavy nutrient consumer need high amounts of external inputs (translation: high chemical fertilizer requirements) since the new types or the high yielding varieties, especially the new hybrids had been re-engineered to require high amounts for it to produce high yields. Thus, in an integrated system, the farmer needs to impute a nutrient producer and the recommendation of various institutions like the FAO is for livestock and poultry to be included in the rice farm (http://www.fao.org/docrep/ 006/y5098e/y5098e04.htm). FAO or the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has identified three (3) major rice-based systems in Asia, all of which integrates livestock and poultry into the system.

Laguna Province is noted for its vast rice lands but it is also known that a major portion of its rice farmers are among the lowest income earners. This became the entry point for the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) to set up the Center for Rural Technology Development (CRT), a center that dedicated itself to developing, validating and disseminating practical and applicable technologies that helped improve the income streams of rice farmers in Laguna and now in many parts of the country and abroad (http://crtd-pbsp-crtd.blogspot.com/). With the help of CRTD, many rice-based integrated farming technologies were developed and which helped farmers with even less than one (1) hectare of land earn decent incomes to improve the quality of life of their families.

One technology developed at CRTD is the BUKHAY (Bukid ay Buhay), translated simply: there is life in farming. This technology focuses on small farm holding of less than one hectare. There is a model where the farmer and his family lives and works on half a hectare and earns at least P100,000.00 per annum net income. The farm is divided into permanent areas of rice, pig pen, fish pond which drains to the rice farm and where fishes are released to feed on the weeds and pests of rice and forced back to their main pond when operation like harvesting and land preparation are done.

Like the requirement noted by the FAO which identifies nutrient inputs as a major factor in the success of an integrated farm, the farmer in a rice-based model grows his own fertilizers in the form of pigs, ducks, chickens and earthworms as the component or sub-system to digest and speedily decompose the manures so that the application to the rice plants is timely and safe. Partially processed animal and poultry manure is harmful instead of beneficial to plants due to the chemical burning during decomposition.

Main Crop: Rice

A typical rice-based integrated farmer would grow rice in a 3,500 sq. meters area, which when feasible would be totally organic and thus would give his produce a premium price in the market, more so if he grows the fancy and purple or red strains. If he grows the fragrant hybrids, he will have a potential of 8 to 10 tons of palay per hectare and with his area of 3,500 sq. meters, this would reach to about 2.8 metric tons which when milled at a conversion rate of 65%, he would net about 1,800 kilos of clean rice. At P30 per kilogram, he would gross about P54,000.00 per cropping. More if he grew fancy rice which fetch about P45.00 per kilogram in the market.

Rice is grown organically or with the least or non-use chemical poisons. Resorting to the technology developed by the Japanese horticulturist Dr. Teruo Higa, the farmer and his family produce their own concoctions for farm application. The center of this concoction is the Effective Micro Organisms Technology or the EM-1, a concentrate of fermented rice where several types of beneficial microbes had been cultured. While there are commercial preparations already available at expensive prices, the farmer can make his own at a much cheaper price and with the same effect. It is also sometimes called the Indigenous Micro Organisms, especially if home-made.

The dikes of the integrated farm are intentionally made large but low to accommodate vegetables and small fruit trees on both sides. The vegetables and fruits like guava and banana are another source of food and income for the farm family. In between the fruits and vegetables are forage plants like napier, ipil-ipil and other legumes that will be fed to the pigs and goats.

To reactivate soil microorganisms, the EM solution is applied to the soil during various stages starting at land preparation. The EM solution is also applied at various stages of growing the pigs, chickens, ducks and even the fishes. The beneficial bacteria intervenes by helping out in many ways, from strengthening the immune system to reactivating the good bacteria that fights viruses and other deleterious microorganisms that would otherwise infect the crop and animals.

In this model, the farmer raises 5-6 heads of pigs for fattening or finishing every six months, mostly timed so that he can sell his pigs when prices are high and not when he needs this for family expenses or school fees. Instead of relying on commercial feeds, the farmer feeds them with home-mixed rations based on the formula provided by the CRTD technicians. Farm rejects and excess produce like spoiled banana, rotting vegetables, kangkong and others are fed to the pigs which not only reduce the cost but also provides good nutrition. While other farmers make about P800.00 per pig for the six months that they raise them, a Bukhay farmer earms several times more since he grows most of the feeds and often slaughter the pigs himself for sale to neighbors and use some for processing into sausages and bacon for added value and income.

Chickens and ducks are also an important part of this model. But they are grown in confinement and pastured when the rice crops are not in danger of being damaged. They are grown for the eggs and meat for sale. Ducks however are more preferred since they also perform the task of clearing the rice fields of the dreaded pest: the golden apple snail which can destroy as much as 40% of the rice crop. Since the chickens and the ducks have dedicated pens, it is easy for the farmer to collect the manures which are then fed to the earthworms which can convert them into organic fertilizer ideal both as soil and leaf (foliar) fertilizers.

The earthworms are also a valuable commodity. Using the fast-reproducing African Night Crawlers (Eudrillus eugeniae), the worms themselves can be used as feeds not only for the chickens and ducks but for the tilapia which can be grown in a separate pond and released to the main rice field when water is high enough and weeds have started to grow. Tilapia are omnivorous and will feed on both grasses and the insects infesting the rice field. When feeds are lacking, earthworms may be fed and which will hasten the growth of the fish since earthworms have almost the same quality and levels of protein as meat.

There are already many farmers in other parts of the country who have established their own rice based integrated farms but only a few Ilonggos have adopted this system. In our visits around the province, we have interviewed many of the non-adopters and their basic answer is that developing an integrated farm is laborious and capital intensive. Many of them however are poor and they have the attitude of stopping all farm activities even before sunset which is the mindset of a laborer or an employee. In our opinion, it is not the system that should be introduced but more intensive activities should be spent on changing the attitudes of farmers and this cannot be done by mere training since for several decades now the Department of Agriculture had been conducting never ending trainings and seminars. Probably the best approach would be to concentrate technology transfer on a few progressive-minded farmers so that technology radiation shall emanate from them.