Philippines: Organic farming is cost-effective By Paul Icamina Global Research, April 16, 2011 malaya.com.

ph 16 April 2011 Region: Asia Theme: Biotechnology and GMO 1 00 18 Organic farming is not just chic food on the table; it has reached policy levels. It is no longer only the concern of farmers making decisions on what organic crops to grow and livestock to raise, but also for researchers and policy makers, said Reynaldo L. Villareal of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). NAST convened a roundtable discussion on organic farming and its role in agriculture; the deliberations will be discussed during NASTs 33rd annual scientific meeting in July. Villareal, NASTs lead person on organic agriculture and formerly a professor at the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB), defined organic agriculture as farming which excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, growth regulators, livestock feed additives and genetically modified organisms. Organic agriculture is one approach to reduce production cost for 75 percent of Filipino farmers who are poor, said Dr. Charito P. Medina, National Coordinator of MASIPAG (Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Development). Their yields is often low, their farming technology inappropriate. While chemical fertilizer is still needed, he said, it is too dependent on oil, requiring 1 ton of oil and 108 tons of water to make 1 ton of nitrogen fertilizer, for example. It is a viable enterprise, Medina said, citing a net income that is higher with organic rice farming compared to conventional systems that use chemical inputs like pesticides and fertilizers. MASIPAG-trained farmers have not used chemical pesticides for decades now, he said, with ducks for example an excellent natural control against golden snail; it converts biomass into eggs and meat as well, he observed. MASIPAG organic farms, he said, average 6.7 tons of rice per hectare in North Cotabato, more than 7 tons per hectare in Laguna but only 5.1 tons per hectare in Surigao del Sur where soils are poor. Edgardo S. Uychiat, president of the Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Foundation, pointed out that in Bago, Negros Occidental, for example, a farmer averages 7 tons per hectare of organic rice compared with 6.3 tons per hectare for conventional rice farming. A diversified organic farming system managed by Iliranan tribals at Mt. Kanlaon earns P332,000 in annual gross sales compared with P72,00 gross sales with traditional monocrop rice farming. In Sagay town, an organic sugar farm averages yields of 60 tons per hectare, compared with 65 tons per hectare in non-organic farms. There are about 400 hectares of certified organic sugar farms in Negros Occidental, Uychiat said. Farmers growing organic coffee in a rainforest, not plantation, setting have improved yields from 0.8 kilogram per tree in 2207 to 1.2 kgs per tree in 2009. They report a 20-percent increase in income; this year, Negros farmers will plant 1 million trees of arabica coffee to offset imports. About 880 small farmers and 12 companies are certified as growing organic crops in 1,300 hectares in Negros Occidental; the province has banned the cultivation of genetically modified crops.

You can debate about the ban for years, but the organic market doesnt like gene-modified crops, Uychiat said. The Philippines has great prospects for organic chicken and meat, said Dr. Angel L. Lambio of the Animal Breeding and Physiology, Animal and Dairy Sciences Cluster, UPLB College of Agriculture. We have our very own native chickens as stocks, we have large tracts of fertile lands to produce organic feeds, we could produce medicinal plants for maintaining flock health, and production could be year-round with minimal expense on housing and facilities, he said. One constraint is that the free-range colored chickens called Sasso and Kabir that are used for organic production are imported; because supply is erratic,native chicken is an attractive option. Almost half of the countrys chicken inventory is native and raised by small farms primary for home consumption and as a source of extra income, Lambio observed. Their production and reproductive performance are variable, indicating a high potential for genetic improvement through the application of appropriate selection methods and mating systems, he said. The quality attributes of native chicken include strong and distinct flavor; lean ,with very, very small amount of fat; and no harmful chemicals. Our problem is actually limited volume to supply a niche market, Lambio said. There is a demand, as shown by the 3,000 to 7,000 heads of native chicken traded in a Batangas market every Friday. The supply of organic feeds like corn, soybean and legume, is also a constraint, he said. Other organic feeds are still being imported by commercial producers of organic chickens. Self-sufficiency is doable the natural way, he said, with feeds that include rice and corn and their by-products, legumes, chopped root crops, banana and coconut meat. http://www.globalresearch.ca/philippines-organic-farming-is-cost-effective/24356

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BACK TO MAIN | ONLINE BOOKSTORE | HOW TO ORDER Benefits of organic rice production Research conducted by the University of Philippines Los Banos, which compared agronomic, economic and yield responses of three different sustainable rice-production systems - the system of rice intensification (SRI), farmers practice (FP) and balanced fertilization system (BFS) provides evidence that sustainable organic practices are feasible and will benefit small farmers. Economic analysis also suggests that organic farming can be even more feasible and profitable when farmers produce their own organic fertilizers and botanical sprays. Moreover, where water is not a limiting factor and when temperature is low, SRI resulted in a higher number of tillers, percent productive tillers, panicle length, filled grains, 1,000 seed weight, and grain yield with lower costs of production and high return on investment. While this research is based on one seasons data, further research will be carried out and is expected to be more conclusive on the benefits of using organic fertilizer in terms of improving soil characteristics and consequently increasing yield.

A news article reporting on the study is available athttp://www.businessmirror.com.ph/component/content/article/53-agricommodities/13088-up-study-shows-benefits-of-organic-rice-production.html With best wishes, Lim Li Ching Third World Network 131 Jalan Macalister, 10400 Penang, Malaysia Email: twnet@po.jaring.my Websites: www.twnside.org.sg, www.biosafety-info.net

UP study shows benefits of organic-rice production Written by Jonathan L. Mayuga / Correspondent Business Mirror MONDAY, 13 JULY 2009 20:13 AN organic rice-production experiment administered in Baao, Camarines Norte, and Alaminos City, Pangasinan, shows positive signs that sustainable organic practice is feasible and will benefit small farmers, Go Organic! Philippines said in a statement. Lawyer Efren Moncupa, lead convenor of Go Organic! Philippines, said the study, performed by experts from the University of the Philippines Los Baos (UPLB), boosts the governments goorganic program to convince farmers to veer away from the excessive use of harmful chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This means that the Philippines is on the right track in promoting organic farming, Moncupa, a former agrarian-reform undersecretary, said. A consortium of nongovernment organizations led by the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement and La Liga Policy Institute, Go Organic! Philippines is aggressively promoting organic farming and is behind the successful implementation of the Organic FIELDS Support Program, under which 600 farmers were trained with various organic-farming systems and technologies in six towns in Luzon, namely, Baao, Camarines Norte; Tabaco, Albay; Naujan, Oriental Mindoro; Guimba, Nueva Ecija; Samal and Dinalupihan, Bataan; and Alaminos City, Pangasinan. The first phase of the program, which was launched in November last year, officially ended in April. Phase 2 of the P20-million project is currently in the pipeline. All we need to do is to pursue existing programs that promote organic farming, said Roland Cabigas, managing director of LLPI and a convenor of Go Organic! Philippines. The study aims to compare the agronomic, economic and yield responses of the system of rice intensification (SRI), farmers practice (FP) and balanced fertilization system (BFS) in Baao, Camarines Sur, and Alaminos City, Pangasinan. The research team, headed by Oscar Zamora, dean of the UPLB graduate school and a professor of the UPLB College of Agriculture, came up with an economic analysis which revealed that organic farming is more feasible and profitable when farmers produce their own organic fertilizers and botanical sprays. The research was conducted in barangays Tangcarang and Palamis in Alaminos City, Pangasinan, and in barangays Sagrada and Salvacion in Baao, Camarines Sur, in collaboration with the local governments of Alaminos City and the municipality of Baao, and the Camarines Sur State Agricultural College during the dry season from November 2008 to April 2009. The experiment sought to quantify the performance of SRI, FP and BFS and determine the more sustainable rice-production system in two selected provinces. Except for barangay Tangcarang, where the experiment was set up in a techno-demo farm, all the three other sites were farmers fields.

According to the study, rice production in Baao resulted in a higher number of tillers, percent productive tillers, panicle length, filled grains, 1,000 seed weight, and grain yield with lower costs of production and high return on investment. The study revealed that rice-yield potential across treatments is higher in Baao than in Alaminos City, because water was not limiting and temperature was lower during the cropping season in Baao than in Alaminos City, the report explained. Under the conditions in both sites during the experiment, the potential of SRI is higher in Baao than in Alaminos City. This indicates that the potential of SRI can be better expressed in areas where water is not a limiting factor and when temperature is low, the study concluded. Zamora said the study results are not yet conclusive since the experiment was only done for one season. The benefits of using organic fertilizer in terms of improving soil characteristics and consequently increasing yield are usually not quantifiable in the first season, he said. He suggested that future research-and-development activities of similar nature should be done in actual farmers fields to better reflect the realities of actual rice farming. According to Moncupa, farmers and consumers will benefit greatly in going organic in terms of income, health and environmental protection. Organic farming makes use of organic fertilizers and pesticides which the farmers themselves can produce from raw materials that can be found in their farms such as rice straw, rice hull and animal manure. http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/susagri/susagri097.htm ..........................................................................

Innovation in Agriculture Sharing Ideas on Enhancing Yields Join the discussion - share ideas AdvancingAg.com Consumers perceive organic produce as safer and healthier, and expect it to have greater nutritional value (see References 1). With respect to rice, agricultural researchers find some discernible advantages for farmers and the environment from growing rice organically. Comparing other qualities of organic and conventionally grown rice, however, scientists find fewer differences than purchasers might expect. Nutrition According to a 2006 study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Research Service, organically grown rice contains less protein than rice conventionally grown with inorganic fertilizer, but that starch and mineral contents do not differ (see References 3). In a 2007 study published in the "Journal of Agronomy for Sustainable Development," however, researchers found that organic rice contains more iron and less copper than conventional rice (see References 5). Taste and Cooking Quality Researchers at the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center evaluated 20 different rice cultivars to understand the effect of organic agriculture on rice flavor and texture, and in an Experiment Station Bulletin published in 2009, found no difference in the taste or aroma of organic versus conventionally grown rice. Organic rice did appear to be whiter and softer when cooked than conventional rice. (See References 2)

Impact on Soil Quality In a 2004 study in the "Journal of Sustainable Agriculture," scientists found that using organic methods improved the quality of soil. Improved soil quality, defined as looser, deeper mud, made it easier to prepare paddies and control weeds. The researchers attributed the improvement to the higher levels of soil organic matter in organically managed rice paddies, as a result of farming practices such as crop residue recycling and application of animal manure. (See References 6) Profitability for Farmers In studies of rice farming in the Philippines, Teodoro C. Mendoza found organic farming requires only 1/3 the cash capital needed for conventional rice production, but necessitates more manual labor in the form of weeding, spreading straw and applying manure and compost and controlling snails by hand-picking (see References 6). Growing rice organically is four times more energy efficient than the conventional method. As a result of the lower input and energy costs, organic rice farmers in the Philippines earn $7 per $1 cash expense, while conventional farmers earn only $2 per $1 of expense. (See References 4)

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Organic Rice Farm Produces 9 Tons in 1 Cropping Season Click Here to Increase Your Crop Harvest and Quality with Lower Input Costs If only all rice farmers in the Philippines 2.7 million hectares of rice paddies can hit an average palay (unmilled rice) production of nine tons per hectare each cropping season, the country can easily reclaim its top position as the worlds rice granary. Impossible? Not to Alexander Manguera, 47, of purok 8, barangay Base Camp here. Manguera recently harvested 9.6 tons of pure organic palay in his one-hectare rice paddy in his first-ever attempt at using the Integrated Rice-Ducks Farming System (IRDFS) propagated by the nongovernment organization Philippine Agrarian Reform Foundation for National Development (Parfund). Mangueras harvest is the biggest, so far, in the history of the IRDFS in the Philippines. He surpassed the erstwhile bounty harvest of 7.3 tons in the one-hectare farm of Rodi Dongallo in Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental.

But Dongallos 7.3-ton harvest was achieved only after four years of implementing the IRDFS while Manguera achieved his in just one cropping season (three months from seeding to harvesting) using the M3 rice variety. I was very happy when Sir Poloy informed me that I have the biggest harvest of palay using the rice-duck technology, he told the BusinessMirror. Poloy, nickname of Jose Apollo Pacamalan, Parfund program director, is the only IRDFS expert in the Philippines who studied the technology under the watchful eye of its developer, Japanese innovative organic farmer Takao Furuno. The average palay harvest per hectare in the Philippines is 3.7 tons (or 74 bags of 50 kilos each), according to the Department of Agriculture (DA). But Mangueras harvest was 9.6 tons (at 160 sacks of 60 kilos each). If each farmer can harvest 9 tons per cropping, we need not import rice anymore, he said. The Philippines imported a record 2.3-million tons of rice and spent about US$1.5 billion in 2010 alone, the biggest importation so far since the country started importing rice in 2000. The DA said that since 2000, the annual average rate of rice importation of the country until 2010 is 16 percent. This makes the Philippines the worlds number-one rice importer despite its basically an agricultural country like its rice-exporting neighbors in Asia. The countrys irrigated rice production continually increased since 2000, with the country harvesting a total of 9,412,676 tons. It harvested 9,790,260 tons in 2001; 9,949,173 tons in 2002; 10,250,223 tons in 2003; 10,941,836 tons in 2004; 11,233,793 tons in 2005; 11,594,933 tons in 2006; 12,269,390 tons in 2007; 12,556,150 tons in 2008; 12,083,264 tons in 2009; and 11,992,459 tons in 2010. The Philippines continues to import rice because of the rapid increase in population and the inefficiency of Filipino rice farmers. According to data from the DA, the typical Filipino rice farmer is only 40 percent efficient with only 25 percent of this number able to attain a harvest of four tons per hectare (t/ha). Seventy-five of every 100 farmers produce less than four t/ha owing to their inability to benefit from high-yielding technologies arising from high costs of production (farming inputs) relative to profitability, uncertainties in production (insect pests, diseases, typhoons, drought), low or fluctuating prices of palay, and inaccessible credit facilities, the DA said. But the DA, under Sec. Proseso Alcala, is bent on making the Philippines a rice-sufficient country by 2013. Under the 2011-16 Rice Self-Sufficiency Plan drafted by the government, the Philippines is targeting to produce 17.46 million metric tons (MMT) in 2011, 19.2 MMT in 2012, 21.12 MMT in 2013, 21.76 MMT in 2014, 22.41 MMT in 2015 and 23.08 MMT in 2016. This, compared to the projected palay requirements of 20.68 MMT in 2011, 20.9 MMT in 2012, 21.11 MMT in 2013, 21.56 MMT in 2014, 22.02 MMT in 2015 and 22.49 MMT in 2016. During the DAs 113th anniversary last June 23, Alcala vowed to totally eliminate the Philippines over-dependence on imported rice, reducing to one-third the 2010 rice imports of 2,380,000 MMT to just 860,000 MT this year and 500,000 MT in 2012. By 2014, the Philippines may start exporting surplus rice, including organic rice, to fulfill the central goal of the Aquino administrations Food Staples Self-Sufficiency Roadmap (FSSR) for 2011-2016, which also serves as the countrys blueprint for food security, to make the country rice self-sufficient. Sa tuloy-tuloy na reporma natin, possible pong bago tayo bumaba sa pwesto sa tanghali ng Hunyo 30, 2016, sa halip na mag-angkat, baka tayo na ang magbebenta sa ibang bansa ng bigas, the President said during the DAs 113th anniversary celebration in Kawit, Cavite. But Manguera said Aquino or Alcala should not wait for 2013 or 2016 to make the country rice self-sufficient.

We can export rice the soonest possible time especially if we implement the rice-ducks technology all over the Philippines, he said. The IRDFS is regarded as the future of rice farming. Furuno developed it in 1989 in an effort to reintroduce ancient rice-farming techniques in Japan and increase productivity per hectare without increasing farm inputs. The system [IRDFS] is based on agro-ecological principles and biological synergies that require less input but yield the highest production of rice per hectare, Furuno said in Japanese that was interpreted by Hirotaka Konagaya. Furuno extensively lectured on his own experiences in rice-duck farming during the Sixth International Rice-Ducks Conference at the San Carlos University-Talamban Campus in Cebu City in 2008. By Business Mirror Growing Organically Produces Larger Harvest Yields and Higher Quality Crops Nutrplant Nutriplus Organic application protocols on average produce 8 to 12 tons of hybrid rice harvest per hectare, and 6 to 8 tons per hectare for certified and inbred rice varieties. Compare that with nationwide average rice harvest yields of 5 tons or less per hectare. Double, triple or more your rice harvest yield using Nutriplant Nutriplus organics. Nutriplant Nutriplus Organics Protocol Input Costs Per Hectare for All Types of Crops Includes organic nutrients for seed sowing. P2,500 1 Spray Application - For Rice Always Apply at Panicle Initiation P3,800 2 Spray Application - Typical for mangos, fruit, rice, corn, vegetables, and flowers. P5,200 3 Spray Application - Full Nutriplant Nutriplus application protocol with no other application required of any other nutrient fertilizer products. Increase harvests, naturally organically, with lower input costs. Good for the farmer, the environment, and the consumer.

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