Rice Contract Growing! Industrializing Rice Farming Starts In Taraka, Lanao Sur

The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) will start a program in the poor Muslim town of Taraka, Lanao del Sur which aims to transform Rice Farming into an industry where farmers are contracted to plant a specific variety of premium rice and assured of a floor price of P19 per kilo.

During the orientation on the “Salam Brotherhood Farming” attended by Taraka Vice Mayor Odin Sumagayan and the town’s rice farmers who are beneficiaries of the six units of Solar-Powered Irrigation Systems funded by the local government unit, the Mindanao Rice Industry Development Program was introduced as a way to counter the flooding of premium imported rice and the frustration of farmers on the very low farm gate price of their produce.

The MinDARice Program involves the implementation of the complete value chain concept in agricultural production where the farmers, with the help of their local government unit, will have full control of the whole process – from planting, harvesting, processing to marketing.

This will replicate the contract growing operations of multi-national companies involved in growing pineapple or Cavendish bananas where farmers are guided on what variety to plant and are assured of a market.

Unlike the commercial contract growing by multi-national companies where the farm gate prices fluctuate depending on prevailing world market prices, the MinDARice Program assures contracted rice farmers of a floor price by following farming standards and protocols.

Among the standards and protocols which farmers will be obliged to observe are:

1. The adoption of hybrid premium rice seeds to produce quality rice. In Taraka, only two hybrid rice seed varieties will be introduced, US 88 of Seedworks Philippines and Kimbee Hybrid of Ramgo Seeds International. This strategy will ensure that whatever rice comes out of Taraka would stand out in the market as quality rice;

2. Observance of safe and environment-friendly rice farming, especially so since the farms are located in the periphery of the 34,000-hectare Lake Lanao. While it could not be implemented 100% right away, the ultimate objective of the MinDARice in Taraka is to produce the Halal Premium Rice for a niche market;

3. Participating farmers will be bound by a No-Pole-Vaulting provision and farmers who are not accredited as part of the program will not be allowed to sell their produce to MEEDO.

In the Taraka Template, the Municipal Economic Enterprise Development Office (MEEDO) which had been organized with the help of MinDA will be the lead agency in the rice contract growing program.

MEEDO will provide the seeds and other farm inputs on credit, including the services of farm equipment to develop the farms.

The contract growing program will start with the first 200 hectares served by two SPIS which would be fully operational by September.

When harvested, the estimated 1,200-metric tons to be produced from the area (average of 6-metric tons per hectare) will be bought by the MEEDO and delivered to a modern rice processing facility in Cotabato where the rice will be dried, milled and packed under a tolling arrangement.

(This will be a temporary set-up until Taraka through its MEEDO will be able to establish its own rice processing complex complete with storage silos.)

The packed rice in 5 and 25 kilo bags will then be marketed by MEEDO initially locally at prices lower than the imported premium price to gain a foothold in the rice market.

The MinDARice Program is expected to revolutionize the rice industry of Mindanao and when replicated in other LGU areas would create virtual localized rice industries where farmers are protected while LGUs generate income from the economic enterprise.

#RevolutionizingRiceIndustry!

#KungGustoMaramingParaan!

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!

(Photos of the field visit of the area planted to hybrid rice in Mangayao, Taraka, Lanao del Sur show the MinDA Chairman, Taraka Vice Mayor Odin Sumagayan, MinDA rice consultant Nathanael Fabila and the rice farmer who owns the field. Photos by Kath Bahinting.)