Farmer crosses river to get RCEF inputs

Whenever supplies are ready, palay farmer Desie Suco Paalisbon crosses the river (using the family’s motorized banca) for 30 minutes to one hour to get her inbred seeds and fertilizers under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund in Purok 5, Tambulig, Zamboanga del Sur.

She makes sure to plant the two sacks of seeds and two sacks of fertilizers immediately on the family’s 1 hectare palay field so that when floods come– usually during storms and heavy rains– she would have harvested the crop by then.

Since being reelected as kagawad, she also dutifully informs the members of Barangay Angeles Farmers Association, where she is also an officer, about when RCEF stocks are ready for pick up. The association is registered with the RSBSA (Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture) and with the Department of Labor and Employment to qualify them for all government assistance.

She became a member of RCEF in 2020 and had since felt a big relief from obtaining her inputs for free from the government.

Her constant challenges in palay farming are rats and stem borers during the dry season crop and the floods during the wet season planting. 

Her usual yield is 30 to 40 sacks (of 65 kilograms) during the wet season crop and 50 sacks or more (of 70 kg per sack) during the dry season crop. 

She and fellow farmers would base their schedule of crossing the river for the RCEF supplies on the high- or- low- tide days of the calendar.

Since the farm is located near the river and in the lowest-lying area of the province, floods are normal occurrences. She is also grateful for the extension services provided by the municipal agriculture office. 

Even with such odds, she said, they have no choice but to plant palay for their sustenance as other forms of livelihood are hard in their province. 

With El Nino just around the bend, she said, they might be forced to switch to planting other crops like corn and monggo– like they did in previous El Nino episodes.

Her story complete with photos was featured by the DA-PhilRice Midsayap on Facebook last November 22.

In the post she said she plants whatever quality inbred seeds they get from the RCEF seeds program because their harvest is aplenty compared to what they used to plant before RCEF.

Simula pa lamang 2020 ay nakakatanggap na ng binhi mula RCEF si Desie. Kung dati ay nasa 26 sako ang kanyang ani, ngayon ay umaabot na nga raw ito ng 45 sako.

Sa kasalukuyang taniman, umaabot sa 2,351 sako ng binhi ang naipamigay ng programa at ng lokal na pamahalaan ng Tambulig sa kanilang bayan. Kabilang sa mga barayti na kanilang natanggap ay NSIC Rc 222, Rc 442, at Rc 160.

“Why will you not be proud in your heart knowing that PhilRice never stopped trying… and our farmers never stopped trusting the service we bring them,” said PhilRice Director Dr. John de Leon in reacting to the post. RDLC