Wazzup Pilipinas!?
In Barangay Lamorito, one of Guimba’s 64 villages, 24 farmers, including women, are taking part in a classroom-style training program aimed at improving rice production. The initiative seeks to raise farm productivity while contributing to broader food security goals.
One of the participants is Rina Pagaracan, a rice farmer who manages a one-hectare farm together with her husband.
“The better we learn about improved farming practices, the better we can sustain our everyday needs,” she said.
Rina is among more than 100 farmers trained in good palay farming practices under a project led by the Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO) of Guimba, the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF), and the Cooperative Enterprise for True Economic Reform (CENTER).
Making the rice granary more productive
Guimba is the largest rice producer in Nueva Ecija, the country’s top rice-producing province. The municipality is home to around 12,000 palay farmers cultivating approximately 15,000 hectares of predominantly flat agricultural land. About 95 percent of rice areas are irrigated, enabling Guimba to produce at least 192,000 metric tons of palay annually --- roughly 11 percent of Nueva Ecija’s total rice output.
Despite these favorable conditions, rice farmers in Guimba continue to face persistent challenges. High production costs, increasingly unpredictable weather and climate conditions, and the impact of rice importation policies have all contributed to declining farm incomes.
To help address these issues, PEF and CENTER, with support from the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), conducted research and field demonstrations in 2023 on hybrid rice varieties and improved farm practices to increase productivity.
Two years later, the results of these demonstrations --- together with PhilRice’s PalayCheck System models --- were consolidated into a modern palay farming technology module. This module now serves as the foundation for training rice farmers in Guimba, translating research-based practices into practical, field-level learning.
Current training sessions focus on fertilizer management, pest management, crop calendar usage, farm planning, and clustering. MAO staff lead the sessions, visiting barangays alongside local farmer technicians who have adopted and demonstrated the technology's effectiveness.
Building a better future for rice farmers
According to CENTER Chair Catalino Obinario, the Palay Technology Adoption Program is designed to strengthen the resilience and long-term sustainability of rice farming in Guimba. A multi-pronged approach underpins the initiative, with continuous monitoring and evaluation planned over the coming years.
“There will be regular interviews with technology adopters to assess whether recommended protocols are being followed and whether the trainings are producing the desired results,” Obinario said. “We will also organize farmers’ field days to showcase their farms and encourage other farmers to adopt these practices.”
Over the next five years, CENTER, PEF, and the Guimba MAO aim to expand the program’s reach by encouraging wider adoption of improved farming technologies. The partners also plan to strengthen the rice consolidation and processing capacities of local farmer cooperatives and associations, while fostering collaboration with key rice industry stakeholders --- laying the groundwork for a more inclusive and sustainable future for rice farmers in the municipality.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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