HomeFeatures Ormoc City mayor aims for rice surplus; taps hybrid rice
Ormoc City mayor aims for rice surplus; taps hybrid rice
Written by Web Team
Tuesday, 17 October 2006
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He wants his city to become a rice exporter to nearby cities and provinces. His solution? Hybrid rice.
Upon assuming his post in 2004, Ormoc City Mayor Eric C. Codilla urged local farmers to plant hybrid rice as he believes its potential in increasing rice yields in Ormoc City not only to meet local demand but also to produce surplus.
Codilla knew that their neighboring provinces and cities could not produce enough rice for their own consumption forcing the latter to import from other provinces. He saw this as a potential market.
In Ormoc, agriculture and other related industries dominate land use. In fact, 26, 298 hectares or 56.64% of the city's total land area is devoted to agriculture, thus they are in the best position to earn from rice farming.
But he observed that farmers were not planting hybrid rice despite its potential benefits. He later discovered that the constraint was lack of capital. To address this, he devised a scheme, which he thought would encourage local farmers to adopt hybrid rice.
He tapped the government's hybrid seed subsidy program and launched the Rice Production Enhancement Program (RPEP) in Ormoc City. It is a 5-harvest season program that aims to sustain Ormoc farmers' yields for the coming cropping seasons. Currently, the program is in its last phase with almost 2,000 farmers joining.
The program started during the 2005 dry season with 345 hectares. For two seasons, participating farmers were able to loan P1.3 M without interest to enable them to buy inputs such as fertilizer. The loan per hectare is 2 bags 18-46-0 + 1 bag 0-0-60 + 6 bags organic fertilizer or a total loan of P4,160 per hectare for each farmer.
The local government observed that the scheme was encouraging. Those yielding a minimum of 120 cavans per hectare do not need to pay back the loan. Those who yielded 119-110 cavans per hectare pay 25%, 109-100 cavan yields pay 50%, 99-90 cavans per hectare pay 75% of the loan. The lowest yielders or those who harvested below 90 cavans pay the total loan amount.
According to Codilla, this scheme ensures that farmers will strive hard to get higher yields.
To qualify, the farmer-cooperators need to buy hybrid seeds, attend a seminar on hybrid rice production, get crop insurance from Philippine Crop Insurance Corportation (PCIC), and buy two bags of urea fertilizer.
Come wet season of 2005, the number of participants almost tripled with more than 900 hectares of rice fields already devoted to hybrid rice. The cooperators were given the same terms, just one bag less of fertilizer per hectare, and with a more challenging target yield of 140 cavans per hectare.
For dry and wet seasons in 2006, the target area planted to hybrid rice is 1,000 hectares.
Loan payments are in kind - palay. These are milled and rationed to poor elementary pupils, each getting a kilo of rice a day.
Codilla uses this opportunity to encourage children to go to school despite lack of money, the rice serves as their incentive for coming to school, and at the same time their basic education is ensured.
For farmers who are still not convinced to plant hybrid rice, he sponsors their transportation and food to visit the fields of farmers who joined the project and planted hybrid rice so that they will see for themselves that it is viable and profitable.
According to Codilla, rice importation will be unnecessary if only all politicians will give 5% of their IRA (internal revenue allotment) to rice production projects. This simple fund channeling will ensure that we will have sufficient supply of rice in the country, he says. (with reports from Anita V. Antonio)
He decided to become 'The mayor of Ormoc', and immediately handled the 'papal cling' - I knew there was a force over there and the knowledge, when Cebu became his hive, and thought...what if. His brother Winnie was then the head of political agenda, and father Dodong was really very popular, and when he, as a lil boy travelled down to Kananga and all provinces, these rice fields were like a huge plain for him, when like, Sto Nino de Jesus walked on grains all his life.
I knew 'he' was OSIRIS _ Egypt's God of Farming. And I'm Isis _ Egypt's goddess of RTW. 2000.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
I knew it all along, when...
He decided to become 'The mayor of Ormoc', and immediately handled the 'papal cling' - I knew there was a force over there and the knowledge, when Cebu became his hive, and thought...what if. His brother Winnie was then the head of political agenda, and father Dodong was really very popular, and when he, as a lil boy travelled down to Kananga and all provinces, these rice fields were like a huge plain for him, when like, Sto Nino de Jesus walked on grains all his life.
I knew 'he' was OSIRIS _ Egypt's God of Farming. And I'm Isis _ Egypt's goddess of RTW. 2000.
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