Sixty two-year-old Rodolfo Tibayan from Naic, Cavite saved P20,000 on agricultural inputs from his 1.8-hectare land in the recent cropping season through new farming techniques. He shared that letting his land rest for two to three months before plowing, allowing the rice straws to serve as organic fertilizer, was a big factor.  Tibayan describes himself as a traditional farmer. He usually uses manual plowing and fertilizer application – methods he […]

The continuous type rice hull carbonizer (CT-RHC) developed by DA-PhilRice is boosting livelihood opportunities for rice farmers who use the heat from the carbonization process as alternative energy source. Rice hull is often seen as a mere waste material. But DA-PhilRice experts led by Dr. Ricardo Orge have developed the carbonizer that harnesses rice hull as biomass feedstock. The carbonizer converts rice hull into biochar. It is used as soil […]

Farmers who graduated from the Farmer Field School (FFS) under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund – Rice Extension Services Program (RCEF-RESP) reported that the training courses and the PalayCheck primers helped in increasing their yield. “The PalayCheck primer has been our guide in modern rice farming. It tackles topics from seed selection to post-harvest. It is  my routine to read first the primer before visiting my farm every morning,” Edgard […]

Jerry Respicio, a 53-year-old rice farmer from Aglipay, Quirino, saved P5,500 in labor cost and increased his harvest by 30cav (50kg each) when he used precision seeder in planting. “Before, I spent at least P10,000 for manual transplanting. This was reduced to P4,500 when I practiced direct seeding through the precision seeder introduced to us. My plants also grew healthy and uniformly,” Respicio said. He added that his harvest increased […]

At a glance, the chief goal of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Seed Program seems pretty simple – to distribute certified seeds to rice farmers. Looking deeper, it is not an easy pursuit, especially if we add the pandemic to the equation. Since the start of the program in September 2019, various partners in the field mushroomed. Among them were the local government units (LGU). Keeping it wide In […]

Adding a vertical garden in a rice-based farming system augments sources of income; an established setup in thePalayamanan farm of the  Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) showed.  Dr. Marissa V. Romero, lead of PhilRice’s project Modernized rice-based farming systems and value-adding technologies, said that integrating vertical garden in Palayamanan increases sources of food and income and enhances resiliency. Palayamanan integrates diverse crops and livestock in a farm to […]

A short drive from the highway along San Antonio Weste in Lupao, Nueva Ecija is a field teeming with vegetables ready for harvest. Beside it is another field from which rice was freshly harvested. One would not think that these were barren seven months ago. Aila G. Grospe, farm owner, recalls that the 1.3-ha farm has been abandoned for 15 years since her father passed away. The sudden twist of […]

By Eufemio T. Rasco Understanding the science behind food is more important than ever. As the Philippines slowly loosens its COVID-19 protocols, it has become necessary to address other important issues that emerged, or were exacerbated, during our extended lockdown. This is particularly resonant for the Philippine agriculture sector, which is undergoing a shift from the perspective of its food systems. This is in part due to shifting global paradigms and commitments […]

One of the alternative courses of action in disseminating information about agriculture is engaging the youth community. Various programs have been developed to encourage the youth to be involved in agriculture especially in rice farming to help farmers adopt available technologies. Let’s discover the engagements of the youth in agriculture. After almost 7 years of implementation, the Special Training for Employment Programs (STEP) by the Technical Education and Skills Development […]

Training as professional intervention should not end with its mere conduct; it should also include the documentation of former trainees’ lives years after being trained. Questions such as what happened to the trainees years after their training, did they share their knowledge with their community, and what needs to be improved in the training course or program should be asked. According to Rowena A. Pineda, senior science research specialist of […]