Support needed by ‘Masagana’ rice program

Recently, President Marcos, in his capacity as agriculture secretary, led a meeting among stakeholders in the rice industry where he unfolded and approved a Masagana Rice Industry Development Program (MRIDP). A contemporary iteration of the “Masagana 99” program in the ‘70s, the MRIDP aims to achieve the highest possible level of rice sufficiency by 2028 while ensuring the welfare of Filipino farmers.

The program has four strategic planks, namely: (1) increasing rice productivity, reducing risk, and increasing resilience through climate change adaptation; (2) attaining economies of scale and more efficient operations through farm clustering; (3) accelerating digital transformation for rice agriculture, and (4) pursuing a holistic “Triple A” approach through agricultural productivity, agribusiness, and agro-industrialization.

In this meeting, the President emphasized the need for farming innovations through modern agriculture practices, mechanization, and digitalization. To move these forward, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has been conducting rice technology workshops in all regions to mobilize stakeholder support, and map out collective action for the widespread utilization of modern rice technologies. Among these are the planting of superior and climate resilient varieties, farm mechanization, and the digitalization of the rice value chain, the Philippine Rice Information System (Prism), pest risk identification and management (Prime), alternate wetting and drying (AWD), rice crop manager (RCM), and Farmland Geographic Information System (FGIS). These were developed through the collaboration of the Philippine Rice Research Institute, the International Rice Research Institute, and DA agencies, showcasing the strategic role of research in agriculture modernization.

Prism is a satellite-based rice monitoring system providing timely and reliable rice information based on remote sensing, crop modeling, and information and communication technology that supports the DA toward informed policy formulation and planning. Through remote sensing, Prime aims to predict risk factors for pest outbreaks and identify appropriate management approaches to reduce yield losses. The AWD promotes controlled and intermittent irrigation where fields are allowed to dry for a few days before reirrigation, thus reducing water usage and greenhouse gas emissions without reducing crop yields. Using mobile phones with intermediaries, the RCM enables farmers to get information on the right kind, amount, and timing of fertilizer application. The FGIS meanwhile uses data collected from remote sensors and those mounted on farm machinery to help farmers make informed decisions on farm management.

Anchored on modern technology covering water, nutrient, and pest management with cutting edge decision support systems, the foregoing innovations will tremendously boost rice productivity. However, these will not happen unless utilized by a critical mass of farmers through widespread scaling by a stronger extension and related support systems. Scaling must be done in three fronts—scaling up technologies piloted by research for deployment to farms in all provinces, scaling out from a small number to millions of clustered farmers, and scaling deep for the technologies to be sustainably practiced by farmers.

The DA has only regional offices, hence, a stronger extension support system for the MRIDP is needed in the provinces. With this, a group of senior scientists from Los Baños advocated that provinces be the focal point of extension services through Province-led Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Systems (Pafes). Compared to municipalities, provinces have economies of scale and resources (boosted by the Mandanas ruling), and can better mobilize public-private people partnerships along the agriculture value chain.

Led by governors and following a pluralistic modality, Pafes is pursued through partnerships among local government units, DA agencies, state universities and colleges, the private sector, and farmer-fisherfolk organizations. Heeding this call, the DA mainstreamed Pafes in 2021 and it now operates in more than 30 provinces. In this regard, a comprehensive study is now being done by the DA Agricultural Training Institute with a private firm to obtain empirical evidence about the state and capability of the country’s agri-fishery extension system.

Amidst budgetary challenges from the pandemic, agricultural research and province-led agri-fishery extension—if supported strongly by the President and supervised by a DA official directly under him—can serve as a stronger support system for the MRIDP and help ensure national food security.

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Dr. Rex L. Navarro is a member of the Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines. He was director of the DA Agricultural Training Institute and the University of the Philippines Los Baños Institute (now College) of Development Communication.