2023 is a better year for palay farmers

With fertilizer prices having gone beyond the farmers’ imagination in 2022, the high palay farmgate prices in 2022 have been beneficial to farmers who are now encouraged to pursue their noble livelihood despite all current challenges.

This observation was raised in yesterday’s briefing of Undersecretary for Rice Industry Development Leocadio Sebastian to farmers and various rice stakeholders during the Ugnay Palay 35th National Rice R4D Conference in Nueva Ecija .

In 2022, the rice industry was beset by extremely high fertilizer prices. The cost of production was P14.96 and palay price was P17 per kilogram so farmers only earned P2.48 per kilo, he said.

In his visit to Isabela last Saturday, Sebastian asked farmers if things are better now, to which they silently agreed, and so with the audience at the Philippine Rice Research Institute auditorium. 

One indication of good palay prices is that seed growers are now selling their seeds as palay instead of as seeds for planting. “This is the first time that in the wet season crop, walang nagrereklamo na mababa ang palay prices, lahat happy. But the problem is high rice prices,” Sebastian said.

The challenges of palay farmers– namely low productivity, high input cost, restrictions that are repeating each year– “ are now textbook, he said citing the eport before of Dr. Bruce Tolentino, now with the Monetary Board.

Sebastian reiterated the goal of the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program of 90 to 97 percent rice self sufficiency. “We don’t want to go for 100 percent sufficiency level because if we aim that high and do not manage the sufficiency level properly, kawawa naman ang mga farmers kasi babagsak ang palay prices and they donot benefit from it.”

“If we reach beyond 90 percent sufficiency “datpat ready tayo to export high quality rice, heirloom rice and other special quality rice. We can’t just aim to produce but we must ensure that farmers profit from increased production. stable supply, affordable rice, increased farmers income and nutritious rice for all,” Sebastian emphasized.

He cited the experience of a rice mill in Isabela that he visited where it is able to enjoy a milling recovery of 70 percent of premium rice costing P49 per kilogram. They utilize the darak and rice hull to produce electricity, which reduces the electricity cost by P5 per kilowatt hour used in processing different product,” he said. 

He lamented that the national yield is still at a low of 4 tons per hectares when some farmers have gone beyond 6 tons.

This shows we have a big problem in scaling many of our technologies, which he said are now being disseminated by volumes of new publications and new products being turned out by the PhilRice. 

Sebastian said that soil fertility is now a big challenge with the country’s soil characteristics as  moderately suitable and moderately low fertilitiy. “Our usual recommendation of NPK fertilization no longer works. We have to apply a more balanced nutrition and technology. Regenarative agriculture to give us higher yield is what we are aiming for as well as location- specific tecxhnologies.”

He recalled that in 2006, he and now NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan recommended that to increase productivity “we must address the source of production, particularly infrastructure and irrigation which comprise 40 percent, which he has been recommending to the President. 

He said that in the 1970s, Bangladesh was always under flood water hence they were importing most of their rice requirement. They shifted their planting calendar from wet to dry season and invested in water. Now they are self sufficient although still importing a small amount of rice. 

He said MRIDP looks at the entire value chain– from climate change, farm clustering and consolidation, improving, improving the markets and digital transofmration, balanced fertilization, using drones for seeding and fertilization/pesticide applciation, and balanced fertilization including biofertilizers.

In Vietnam, he said, the cost of production went down because of direct seedings. Drones are transformative and can reduce seeding rate at 30 kilograms. With drone seeding farmers can apply fertilizers and pesticides at the right time with such precision.

He also said the DA will now be mainstreaming the voucher system for seeds, fertilizers, credit and mechanizing farm operations. The voucher system will empower the farmers to choose the kind of seeds, fertilizers, credit and machines they would use for their farms.