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hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
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Alternative planting method key to rice self-sufficiency

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | April 21, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Filed under: In the News, Videocasts

EVEN as the government continues to insist that there is no rice supply shortage but only an abnormal increase in the price of the staple owing to soaring world market prices of commodities, the fact is the country is not 100-percent self-sufficient in rice.

As it is only able to produce 90 percent of the rice it needs, the Philippines has had to import the grain from other rice-exporting countries every year. For this year, the government is importing 2.1 million metric tons to maintain its two-month inventory.

To be sure, the Philippines has been resorting to rice importation over the last half-century. Since 2001, however, rice imports have grown to 1.32 million metric tons every year, making the country the number one rice importer in the world.

But to farmers and NGO advocates who have been propagating a rice planting method developed in Madagascar back in 1983, rice self-sufficiency is not only not impossible to attain, the government need not have to resort to importation to feed almost 90 million Filipinos.

The method they are using is called System of Rice Intensification (SRI), discovered by a French Jesuit agriculturist, Fr. Henri de Laulanie, in the course of his collection of the rice-growing practices of Madagascar’s farmers to increase their yields. Successfully tested in over 25 countries, SRI has been found to increase yields by 20 percent or more, and reduces farmers’ costs from seeds, water and external inputs (use of chemical fertilizers and other toxic chemicals).

Length: 00:10:25
File size: 26.8 MB
Videographer/Producer: Alecks P. Pabico
Video editor: Francis Ventura

Among the first to adopt SRI in the country was the late Dr. Edwin Acoba, director of the Agricultural Training Institute of the Department of Agriculture. In 2001, he instructed ATI’s regional training centers to test SRI. One of Acoba’s supervisors then, Noe Ysulat, now director of the training center ng ATI in Region XII, seriously tried the system and to this day demonstrates and advocates SRI’s use in Cotabato and Southern Mindanao.

At about the same time, software engineer and social activist Roberto Verzola was also experimenting with SRI in a small farm in Tagkawayan, Quezon, and was easily impressed by the farming method. In 2002, he and other SRI advocates from the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement, Philippine Greens, Pabinhi, and Negros-based Broad Initiatives for Rural Development formed SRI-Pilipinas to provide trainings to farmers’ groups nationwide in the use of SRI.

With a meager funding it was able to acquire from the agriculture department, SRI-Pilipinas produces SRI primers and training videos that it then provides at cost to farmers’ groups.

But Verzola, the group’s coordinator, is urging the government to allot funds for SRI training to farmers so they can become familiarized with “this amazing method of growing rice.” SRI, he says, can be the key to the country’s rice self-sufficiency.

What makes SRI different from traditional rice planting are its core practices, which consist of the following:

carefully transplanting very young seedlings (two leaves, eight to 12 days old) at one seedling per hill in a square pattern of wider distances (25 centimeters by 25 centimeters or more);

no continuous flooding while the rice is growing, either keeping the soil moist or alternating between wet and dry every three to six days;

using a mechanical weeder every 10 to 14 days for weed control and soil aeration; and

use of compost and organic matter to encourage the growth of soil organisms.

Though the scientific community’s verdict on SRI remains mixed, Dr. Norman Uphoff, former director of the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture, and Development (CIIFAD) of the Cornell University, is among the scientists who have been convinced by what they desrcibed as SRI’s “incredible” results.

Based on his own empirical tests, Uphoff documented such results as increased tillering (usually averaging 30 to 50 tillers per plant or more); bigger panicles (generating 200 to 300 grains/panicle or more); larger root systems (that are five to six times more resistant to uprooting; improved grain quality (fewer unfilled and broken grains); and remarkable resistance to pests, diseases, storms, drought, and cold spells.

Uphoff’s studies also validated SRI’s greater yields from the use of less water as it promotes more root growth and aerobic soil conditions that increase root exudation. Rice plant roots, he noted, degenerate under continuously flooded conditions.

The larger root systems have also been attributed to the plants’ ability to acquire more nutrients that help resist pests and diseases.

The same results are being reported by farmers in SRI production and demonstration farms in Plaridel and Malolos, Bulacan. (see video)

(Photo credits: Still photo of Fr. Laulani taken from Dr. Uphoff’s slide presentation; Dr. Uphoff’s photos taken from the websites of the China government and Cornell University)

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 and is filed under In the News, Videocasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 people have left comments

Very nice audio and video presentation, Alecks. This is one project which the government must invest its full resources.

I notice however that everytime I browse PCIJ I see a very unflattering ad on the left: “Meet Philippine Women Filipino Beauties Seek US Men. Browse Photo Profiles. Join Free! http://www.FilipinaHeart.com.

jcc wrote on April 22, 2008 - 3:22 am | Visit Link

Hi Alecks,

I do appreciate your generosity in producing the SRI video in Tagalog and the effort of Francis for his effort in video editing.

This is my first time to view SRI in Tagalog and I am sure more farmers will be more convinced with the method after viewing this video.

If possible, please post this video in YouTube and tag it with words bigas, palay and SRI.

I also would like to request if you can post it on the SRI-Pilipinas group link on - http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SRI-Pilipinas/links

Thanks a lot and best regards,

Rafael

111qwerty wrote on April 22, 2008 - 4:11 pm | Visit Link

Thanks, jcc. I doubt though if the government would do that given that it takes its cue from the International Rice Research Institute, which has a pronounced bias for hybrid rice production.

It’s also a disincentive to shift to SRI because there’s nothing much to be sold — or profit from, to be blunt about it — in terms of seeds, fertilizers, and other chemical inputs that hybrid rice growing imposes on farmers.

Or as Obet Verzola puts it: “Hybrid rice production attracts a lot of businesses, as well as people who would want to make money out of the whole thing.”

Alecks P. Pabico wrote on April 23, 2008 - 11:44 am | Visit Link

we go back to the same problem: “our sense of morality, patriotism and good conduct” is terribly flawed.

jcc wrote on April 24, 2008 - 1:34 am | Visit Link

Thanks a lot Alecks for posting this page to the SRI Main and SRI Philippines websites. The Tagalog version will surely be appreciated.

Best regards,

Rafael

111qwerty wrote on May 10, 2008 - 2:47 pm | Visit Link