Harvest Time
Options for lower labor cost
By Sosimo Ma. Pablico
AS FERTILIZER PRICES are soaring to high heavens, thereby greatly increasing farm production costs and decreasing farm income, farmers indeed need options that could effectively minimize their expenses and, at the same time, increase their net income.
Results of studies at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) in Nueva Ecija indicate that these options could revolve around land preparation, crop establishment, and harvesting.
In land preparation, for instance, most rice farmers normally practice conventional tillage or “thorough” tillage. In this tillage system, the soil is rotavated first with a rotary cultivator under dry condition, then plowed once under wet condition, harrowed twice with hand tractor (length-wise and cross-wise), and finally leveled with a comb harrow attached to a hand tractor. The whole process takes two to three weeks.
The problem with conventional tillage is that it requires huge expenses. As much as 50 percent of the total production cost in rice production could be spent on labor cost for land preparation, as shown by studies at PhilRice.
The good news is that labor cost could be greatly reduced by 10 – 12 percent through reduced tillage. Although the yield may decrease by 1 – 2 cavans a hectare with reduced tillage, the farmer is still on the winner’s side with a savings of around P4,000 a hectare on labor cost.
Dr. Manuel Regalado explains that with reduced tillage, the soil is only puddled twice. This is done initially with a single pass of the PhilRice improved floating tiller on water-soaked soil. A second pass of the improved floating tiller is made before the soil is finally leveled with a hand tractor-riding type leveler. All together, reduced tillage operations could be finished in 10 days.
While yield with reduced tillage may be a little lower than with conventional tillage, a great reduction on labor cost would result in higher net income. In addition, the farmer saves on the cost of imported fuel and is relieved from emotional stress related to production cost.
Moreover, farmers who borrow money for their production expenses would surely be saved from paying high interest rates. Dr. Regalado calculates that a farmer who borrows money at 10 percent monthly interest rate would save P1,500 from the accrued interest of P4,000 in four months.
He added that the income difference between the two land preparation methods could be appreciated more during the dry season when the gross income advantage of the laborious conventional tillage over reduced tillage is only P1,000 – P2,000 a hectare, as shown by results of their studies. This amount is easily compensated by the foregone interest of the savings on labor cost during land preparation.
Another way of cutting down land preparation cost is the use of the newly improved three-disc plow attached to a riding hand tractor. The plowing capacity of the 8-hp riding hand tractor is increased with this attachment. The three-disc plow could finish 1.9 ha/day, while the two-disc plow can cover only 1.5 ha/day. This means that the three-disc plow is 27 percent more efficient. In addition, it is 22 percent cheaper to operate.
There are also machines for crop establishment that could reduce labor cost, as the amount of labor is greatly minimized. These are the drum seeder, precision seeder, and mechanical transplanter.
PhilRice agricultural engineers said one hectare can be manually transplanted by 10 û 15 workers in one day. On the other hand, only two workers are needed for mechanical transplanting of a hectare. A four-row machine mechanically transplants 21-day old seedlings grown in plastic trays.
With a precision seeder, only one worker is needed for the direct seeding of a hectare in one-half day. In contrast, one person could direct seed a hectare in one day with a manually pulled 12-row drum seeder, which can be purchased at the PhilRice central experiment station in the Science City of Munoz, Nueva Ecija or any of its branch stations in Ilocos Norte, Isabela, North Cotabato, Negros Occidental, and Agusan.
A PhilRice study has shown that with manual broadcasting, the yield (7.0 t/ha) is only slightly higher than with precision seeding (6.8 t/ha) and drum seeding (6.5 t/ha). However, the income from manual broadcasting is not any better than that obtained with the use of a precision seeder or drum seeder if the harvest is intended for certified seed productions
Engr. Eden C. Gagelonia said the small yield advantage of the broadcast method over the precision and drum seeders is only enough to compensate for the higher labor cost in rouging or the removal of off-types and volunteer seeds. In certified seed production, the seeds must be free from off-types to be given a certification tag by the National Seed Quality.
PhilRice engineers have also developed equipment for faster and cheaper harvesting. These are the brush cutter-harvester and panicle thresher-corn sheller.
The brush cutter-harvester is a simple implement attached to the common brush cutter that is used to cut grasses. With one operator, it takes only seven hours to harvest a hectare of rice. It takes no less than two days to cut a hectare of rice plants. The machine’s fuel consumption is only 0.8 – 1 liter an hour and, hence, farmers can definitely save on harvesting cost.
The panicles thresher threshes the panicles and cleans the grains at the same time. It can thresh 350 kg of palay using one-half liter of gasoline per hour, with a threshing efficiency of 98 percent.
(Readers may reach columnist at spablico@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/harvest-time/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)
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