Organic farmers deny low output, report higher rice yields

MANILA, Philippines - It is not true that only the cultivation of hybrid rice would enrich farmers. This claim is false, organic farmers had argued, as they revealed that the harvest of traditional varieties cultivated without using chemical-based fertilizers and agricultural inputs has increased. Farmers from Bulacan, Bataan and Pangasinan who have shunned the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the last five years reported increases from 20 percent to 142 percent. They also said production costs have slid tremendously since they no longer buy petroleum-based inputs that hybrid rice seeds need in bigger volumes. Roland Cabigas, executive director of La Liga Policy Institute (LLPI), which is promoting this type of farming in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), said natural agriculture is creating its own market, citing strong demand for organic vegetables and rice by such hotels as the Manila Peninsula and restaurants like Cravings. Lawyer Efren Moncupa, spokesman of Go Organic! Philippines and head of the Malasimbu Agricultural Cooperative in Dinalupihan, Bataan, said he has been helping farmers shift to organic agriculture and use animal manure, carbonized rice hull and other waste as organic fertilizer. More Dinalupihan farmers are now junking conventional farming as they reap more palay from their farms now. Another firm believer in organic farming is Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza, a former secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), who launched the campaign in 2004 and won over hundreds of farmers to his cause, with some of them reporting up to 142 percent increases in harvests in farms that started with balanced fertilization (with half of the farm using conventional methods and the other half purely organic) and later on went completely organic. Farmer-leader Jaime Tadeo, who leads Paragos, an alliance of peasants, reported that his 1,000 sq m rice farm in Plaridel, Bulacan registered considerable increases in yield since he junked petroleum-based fertilizers and chemical inputs more than five years ago. On the average, his rice yield was higher than the 4.2 tons produced in neighboring farms using conventional methods. Apart from raising his yield, Tadeo said his farm is now a haven for field crabs (talangka), spiders and mudfish, all of which were absent when he was still using synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Agapito Tugade, a farmer from Alaminos City in Pangasinan, revealed that while his first stab at organic rice farming saw the yield falling to 60 cavans per hectare, his yield the following year rose to 72.5 cavans, still less than the 80 cavan average during the time when he was still into chemical farming. Tugade said the third year saw his output in the 7,000 sq m farm besting 80 cavans, and his income rose since he was no longer using expensive imported fertilizers and herbicides. Jun Garde of PRRM also confirmed the success of the system for rice intensification (SRI) in organic farms that restored indigenous practices. From only 80 cavans, succeeding yields grew to a low of 130 cavans to 160 cavans per hectare. - GMANews.TV