Where will your P20 take you?
While the P20/kg price tag for rice may seem a far-fetched idea, the SanGlad RiceBIS Farmers Association is turning this wish into a reality for the Midsayap residents. The association’s product was first purchased by the locals during the Lakbay Palay event of DA-PhilRice Midsayap last year.
According to Merily Ortega, association president, the Rice Business Innovations System (RiceBIS) Community Program taught them the technologies and necessary skills to produce and market their rice, which enabled them to sell at a lower price.
Through training provided by the program, farmers learn about cost-saving technologies such as farm machines and nutrient management recommendations, which reduced their production cost from P12/kg to P9.50/kg. Their yield also increased from 4t/ha to almost 6t/ha.
“With the traditional way of rice planting, we used to hire planters that cost more than P10,000. But when we tried the drum seeder introduced in one of our trainings, we only spent P2,500 for crop establishment,” she said.
By using the Minus-One-Element Technique, farmer-friendly and quick soil analysis kit, their fertilizer expenses also went down from P13,000 to P8,000.
Established in 2019 with only 35 members, the association ventured into rice milling as their first attempt in agri-enterprise. Although P5 was added to their production cost in milling, they were able to sell their rice higher than the farmgate price.
“Our selling of P20/kg of rice made us quite famous. More than making money from the event, we were able to show that farmers can produce rice at reduced cost, sell it at lower price, and break away from traders’ dependence,” she said.
As an association, which now grew into 55 official members, members are also provided with easy access on seeds and farm resources.
“Want to help our fellow farmers so they don’t have to travel far to the market just to buy seeds and other inputs. It’s our goal to make resources easily accessible to our fellows”, Ortega added.
Meanwhile, local RiceBIS coordinator and OIC Branch Director Ommal Abdulkadil said for farmers to sustain the enterprise, they must have a sense of ownership, which the program cultivated to the members.
“We encourage them hard to transact with offices, process the needed papers or documents, and market their products so they will truly feel that they own the business. We are just there to monitor, guide, and provide support if needed,” he said.
Currently, SanGlad association members focus on improving their practices and the strategies they learned from the program. They continue selling their own-produced milled rice and added black rice, which they sell at P60/kg.
