Interconnected Agri! Integrated Farming System: Rotational Cropping & More

In the poor village of Central Panatan, Pigcawayan, Cotabato yesterday, I and my team launched Sorghum Farming in a 3-hectare area which would serve as a model farm.
The introduction of Sorghum, a crop with very high protein at 11% and whose stalks which remain green at harvest are processed to produce Silage for ruminants feeds, marks the start of an Integrated Farming System (IFS) which involves a series of interconnected farming activities.
One hectare of Sorghum could produce an average of 5 metric tons of grains and about 15 tons of Silage which kept anaerobic in plastic bags could feed 50 heads of goats or sheep for one year.
After two harvests of Sorghum (with just one planting because Sorghum grows ratoons), the next farming activity would be the planting of Soybeans, a highly-imported commodity for food and feeds.
Soybeans, a leguminous plant with an import value of P120-B, serves as the Rotational Crop to rejuvenate the soil after two cropping of Sorghum.
What makes the Sorghum and Soybeans production attractive to farmers is the Buy-Back Scheme where Sorghum Grains will be bought by the Southseas Agri-Aqua Ventures, Inc., a small agricultural company which I and former Senator Ping Lacson, along with several friends, formed in 2022.
Soybeans, on the other hand, will be bought back by Vetmate Farma Corp., a Batangas-based agricultural company owned by a friend, German Panghulan.
The third interconnected farming activity would be Cattle, Sheep and Goat Raising in backyard paddocks which would be fed with the Sorghum Silage coming from the farms.
Sorghum wastes during the threshing of the grains heads could be fed to free-range chicken thus offering farmers an additional source of food or extra income.
At the end of the IFS, farmers will be taught on how to make use Cattle, Sheep and Goat manure as organic fertilizer, the same method that is now being practiced by many European livestock farmers.
From there, the process starts all over again where each and every farming activity is interconnected and complements each activity to create a sustained agricultural production.
We are still in the Sorghum and Soybeans production stage but hopefully, with the Large and Small Ruminants Program being promoted by the Dept. of Agriculture now, the IFS will soon be a way of farming in many rural areas of the country.

#SustainableFarmingProgram!