MORE NEWS, KALINGA

Kalinga rice farmers get P.5M aid anew
By Larry Lopez

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – While rice farmers here enjoy a rarely high yield wet crop this season, a windfall P.5 million released by the Bureau of Soils and Water Management even boosted their harvest joys.

Rice harvest this cropping is relatively higher than normal season as the second cropping from June to November is usually threatened by natural calamities.

But farmers here got more reason to rejoice with the release of fresh fund from the BSWM for the expanded rapid and vermi-composting technology project.

Provincial agriculturist Gerry Jose said the new fund is a product of their proposal to BSWM for the expansion of the rapid and vermin-composting area of the province from 50 hectares to 100 hectares.

“When we saw the success of the initial 50-hectare pilot composting area, we proposed to expand it to other farm areas so that we can reach out to more beneficiaries,” Jose said.

The technology was first experimented on a 50-hectare clustered farms in Sitio San Francisco, Poblacion West of this city. The 100-hectare area is clustered into 4, with 25 hectares each.
Rapid composting technology educates farmers to convert their “farm-wastes” into organic fertilizer with the use of organic enzymes sprayed as compost agents.

Composting also reactivates the retained fertilizer elements in the tissues of rice straws, which are plowed back to the soil. This technology is more recommendable than the traditional burning of rice straws. According to Jose, composting saves farmers about 15-20% in fertilizer cost every cropping. The fund from BSWM is distributed as incentives in terms of seed subsidy, required inorganic fertilizer subsidy, Bio-N and other required farm interventions.