LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Harvestable rice included in the contracting scheme of the government must be immediately harvested as Tropical Storm Kristine threatens northern Luzon.
Benito Espique, Manager of the National Irrigation Administration-Cordillera Administrative Region (NIA-CAR), said field offices have been directed to inform farmers in the provinces of Kalinga and Apayao to harvest rice included in the Bagong Bayaning Magsasaka (BBM) program.
BBM rice are sold for PhP 29 a kilo.
“I have already ordered the field offices to trickle down the information to our rice farmers to harvest the rice if they are ready and not wait some more to prevent possible damage in case Kristine brings heavy rains and winds,” he said during the Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas briefing here on Tuesday.
Samuel Bahiwag, acting division manager of Apayao Irrigation Management Office, said farmers have started to gather part of the 30 metric tons of harvestable rice upon learning of the weather disturbance’s possible impact in the region.
Rice contracted under the National Irrigation System were harvested as early as the first week of October. Others areas are covered by the communal irrigation systems, Bahiwag said.
More beneficiaries
Some 333 farmer-beneficiaries, who are members of 18 irrigators associations and who sells minimum of five tons of palay per hectare, have been tapped for the BBM rice program for 2024.
Records showed that 234 hectares of the 496 hectares of land in Apayao and Kalinga contracted for the program have already been harvested.
Espique said the region was allocated PHP24 million for the contract farming scheme this year, used as capital for land preparation, planting and growing, harvest and milling, and post-harvest.
For next year, he said they target to have 2, 900 hectares under the program to include the provinces of Ifugao, Abra, Mountain Province and Benguet.
Under the program, farmers are given PhP 50, 000 initial fund per hectare for land preparation, another PhP 50, 000 for harvesting, drying, milling; and PhP 25, 000 to pack and deliver the rice.
The goal is to produce 7.5 metric tons per hectares, which will give a farmer about PhP 100, 000 fresh income.
“We have to produce a minimum of five metric tons of palay per hectare which is average yield. If we exceed, that means extra income for us,” Remy Albano, a rice farmer from Apayao and the provincial, regional and national federation president of the irrigators’ association, said during the briefing.
“Rice farmers will soon graduate from being the poorest in the country through this scheme. We hope that this program will continue and will be increased in the next cropping season,” he added. (PNA)