Farmers in Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija, will plant special rice to supply the demand of rice cake vendors in the province and in Tarlac, according to the Philippine Rice Research Institute.
PhilRice, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, said farmer-members of its Rice Business Innovations System (RiceBIS) Community Program recently planted special rice in a demo farm managed by the Ugat-Uhay Farmers Association (UUFA).
Joel Pascual, PhilRice community development facilitator, said the association selected special rice because special rice cake vendors place a premium on the variety.
With 40 farmer-participants, the program involves seasonlong capacity enhancement on agripreneurship and Farmer Business School to help them increase their income from rice farming.
Pascual also said farmers can benefit from economies of scale that lowers the cost per unit when palay is sold in bulk, which makes palay selling more attractive to bigger buyers, such as consolidators and millers.
“When realized, This model will pull the farmers out of being trapped in the non-lucrative small-scale palay production. Aside from palay trading, organized farmers can also try other enterprises, such as labor and machine contracting, input selling, seed production, rice milling, wholesaling and retailing,” he said in a statement.
Since wet season last year, UUFA had established demo farms in partnership with PhilRice to test and exhibit technologies, including rice varieties and machines, such as mechanical transplanter and drum seeder.
UUFA’s neighboring RiceBIS partner-cooperative, Pinagbuklod na Adhika Agricultural Cooperative, already handles multiple enterprises including inputs selling, custom service facilities provision and processed-rice products selling, such as rice and mung bean brew, brown rice and milled rice.