MAYOR GROWS AND ENJOYS PURPLE RICE

Mayor Matt Palabrica is one mayor who is also a hands on farmer. A graduate of BS Agriculture, he had been farming since he was still young, having been led to farming by his father, the late former Mayor Zafiro Palabrica. Until his death, Zafiro had been passionate about the farming as a way of life and about changing lives through farming. He was as innovative as he was persevering, proving not only to himself but to the whole community that new technologies, products and processes can be made profitable in Bingawan, their hometown. This passion has been inculcated to the brood especially to the male members of the Zafiro Palabrica line. Having a mother in the person of Josephine Plagata is a plus factor for Mayor Matt since the Plagata clan is landed and Matt's grandfather, Victor, the first mayor of that town, raised his family as a prosperous farmer.

Bingawan, being inland, small in land area and with many barangays still not fully accessible to year-round transportation, is a challenge to the young mayor. His focus is on farming and in improving the productivity of farmers and their families, so that they can improve their economic status to feed their families well and send the children to school.

“I have to lead by example and in so doing, I have to try and make successful new farming trends, technologies and crops. Or else, farmers in our town would not even think of growing new crops or adopting new technologies”.

“I have gotten my first taste of the purple rice when I attended a barangay fiesta where they served food and purple rice. At first taste, I immediately liked it so I asked to buy a few kilograms of seeds since this is an open-pollinated strain. As I planted it, I researched on its potentials and the possibility of a large market in the event than I can convince many of our constituents to produce the strain”, said Mayor Matt. Since then he and his family had eaten purple rice exclusively. Now his children are so used to it that they often express surprise that there is such a thing as white rice. “We serve purple rice year-round since I have dedicated half-hectare to it. And we plant at least two times every year”.

Technology used:

According to Mayor Matt, this particular purple rice strain is very much like any modern high yielding variety which responds to conventional culture, from seeding to harvest. It can be established through direct seeding and transplanting using both the “dapog” and the seedlings grown for a longer period. Being an early maturing (105 days), it responds to timely and appropriate levels of fertilization and would yield as much as any HYV given the optimal levels of fertilizers and other inputs.

Mayor Matt applied his learning from various trainings especially his on farm training in Japan to the best advantage not only of his farm but for his constituent-farmers as well. The best yields he and other farmers have achieved are through the profuse use of organic inputs. By shifting technologies from conventional to more natural and organic methods, Mayor Matt is now enjoying yields comparative to if not higher than when they applied heavy inputs of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. And at a much lower cost. Organic fertilizers applied at heavy doses may not immediately improve yield but in the long run, will improve soil fertility and provide a more balanced mix of nutrients which are needed in the right amounts by the rice plants allowing them to grow more robust and resistant to attacks of insects and diseases that affect chemically fertilized plants. Plants provided with balanced nutrition from organic sources have sturdier stands, larger panicles and fuller grains.

Enjoying the Purple Rice.

Decidedly, purple rice has many advantages than the ubiquitous white polished rice. Aside from the high fiber content which is a result of trying to preserve the red color by lesser polishing, the red pigments classified as anthocyanins are documented to boost the immune system and guard against the attacks of free radicals in the body and thus help prevent lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and cancer (http://howtocookrice.net/types-of-rice/purple-rice/). Many varieties of purple and red rice are also fragrant or aromatic akin to the jasmine rice, that they are sold at much higher prices. Mayor Matt's strain of red rice is is also fragrant especially when newly harvested.

Outlook:

Mayor Matt sees a bright future for purple rice not only for him and his constituents but also for the rest of Ilonggo rice farmers. “We are ready to go big time if we can find a stable market for this variety. Right now, we can only do isolated planting like mine and the farmers from whom I got my seeds. I have also heard of the initiatives of the Iloilo Provincial Government led by the Research Division of the Iloilo Provincial Agriculture Office. If a good market is found, even if the pricing is only a bit higher than the standard white polished rice, then we can re-engineer the whole farming system of my town to produce hundreds of tons of this highly nutritious product”.

“We have also tried other integration strategies for our rice farming activities. Remember that our dad, Zafiro was one of the first local chief executives who advocated innovations such as water impounding with fish integration. Until now our dams which are used during the dry season as a source of water for the third rice crop, are stocked with all kinds of fishes. Now we are hot about the pangasius which is called the dory fish in high class restaurants. So far we have grown big ones which we got as start up from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Hopefully with a good market and more fingerlings to start with, we can grow more of the fish and our farmers will have extra incomes aside from the rice they are growing”.

“We are also interested in other programs focused on rice and other crops that can be integrated into the system. If we expand the purple rice industry, we will be needing more infrastructures like warehouses and a rice mill that can only remove the husk and leave all the nutritious fiber and outer covering in tact. The lesser the polishing, the more higher priced the output will be. In this we will need technical support from other agencies to transfer to us the technology. We also would need grants and external investments for the warehouses to be built. If we can do this, we can assure our farmers of ready storage facilities and eventual better prices for their produce”.

But Mayor Matt has spread his advocacy of purple rice consumption to many of his constituents. He said that as he is developing a larger market for the product, he is assured that if many more of his constituents consume this particular nutritious strain, eating purple rice can become a nutritious way of life for the people of Bingawan.