Successful farming after 19 years as OFW

By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

After 19 years of working as an electronics communication expert in some foreign lands, Roberto Serrano, 53, finally decided to call it quits and started farming in Rizal, Nueva Ecija.  Barely eight years have passed and he is now recognized by his fellow farmers as a top performing farmer.

The initial 4 ha [hectares] of rice land that he started to cultivate have expanded to 12 ha. , and his yields have been increasing through the years.  With hybrid rice in the dry season, his yield has tremendously increased to 8.8 tons a hectare (t/ha).

“I was getting some income right from the start and so I invested further,” he said. 

Roberto recalls that since he did not have much experience in farming, he relied heavily on what the seasoned farmers told him at the start.  “I was just following what they told me, but after sometime I noticed that their practices are very traditional,” he said.

Thus, he started attending seminars to be updated on the new rice technology.  Likewise, he became a member of the local PART [Partnership for Agricultural and Rural Transformation] association, which PhilRice helped organize.  His efforts paid off as he became an accredited seed grower in 2005.

For two years, Roberto was also a participating farmer in the PalayCheck, a rice farming system patterned by PhilRice after Australia’s RiceCheck, which increased the yields of its farmers.  It integrates and balances key technology and management recommendations with farmers’ practices to sustain improvement in productivity, profitability, and environment-safety. 

It was in the PalayCheck when Roberto started planting hybrid rice.  In the first year, he got five of the nine checks and harvested 6.5 t/ha [tons per hectare].  In the second year, the checks were reduced to seven and he got four checks as well as an increased yield of 7.0 t/ha.  A check is a set of recommended practices that must be attained by the farmer as a prerequisite to high yield.

“The Palay Check has spelled a lot of difference from my previous practices,” he said.

For instance, he learned to sow a much smaller amount of seeds for seedling production.  In contrast to his past practice of using 200 to 250 kg/ha [kilograms per hectare], he now uses 50 to 60 kg/ha of certified seeds.  As an accredited seed grower, he plants his own certified seeds.

In addition, he learned not to spray insecticides unless extremely necessary.  “It really works, there’s no infestation,” he answered when asked how good the practice is.  He added that he did not experience any disease attack “probably because I used certified and registered seeds.”

On the average, Roberto’s baseline average yields in the farm that he used for PhilRice-JICA technical cooperation project were 3.88 t/ha from transplanted PSB Rc82 in 2004 wet season and 5.50 t/ha from direct seeded PSB Rc82 in 2005 dry season.

In the first season of the project, 2005 wet season, he harvested 4.50 t/ha from transplanted PSB Rc82, indicating an increase of 620 kg.  He transplanted the same variety again in the following 2006 wet season and his yield rose to 5.04 t/ha.  This means an increase of 1,160 kg or almost 30 percent over the 2004 wet season yield and 540 kg (14 percent) over the 2005 wet season yield.

In the 2006 dry season, Roberto harvested 6.46 t/ha from direct seeded PSB Rc82, indicating an increase of 960 kg or 17.5 percent over the 2005 dry season.  He direct seeded a private hybrid and the inbred PSB Rc128 in the following 2007 dry season and got contrasting yields – 8.5 t/ha from the hybrid and 5.88 t/ha from the inbred, which was actually the lowest yield among the farmers involved in the project that season. 

Among the technologies that he will not forget are the right amount, kind and timing of fertilizer application, as well as complete leveling of the field before transplanting.  For him,   fertilizer application is done three times at 7 to 10 days after transplanting (DAT), 43 to 45 DAT, and 5 percent heading.

For the first application, he applies per hectare 2 bags ammonium phosphate (16-20-0), 2 bags complete (14-14-14) and 1.5 bags urea (46-0-0).  At 43 to 45 DAT, he applies 1 bag urea and 1.5 bags muriate of potash (0-0-60).  Finally, he applies 1 bag urea at 5 percent heading.  He uses less fertilizer and weed control is much better with complete leveling of the field before transplanting.

Still, integrated pest management will always be in his mind, as the cost of insecticides and their application are deducted from the total cost of production. He said insecticides would only be necessary in case of serious infestation.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/harvest-time/)