How much water does rice need? - adron.sr

Loveat firstLorelei dela Cruzsiteby Florencia Palisand Greta GabineteOne Filipino farmer’s experience with a betterway of managing his crop’s fertilizer needs couldinspire change across the nation’s rice fieldsFILIPINO FARMER Johnny Tejedatends his rice crop in Iloilo.The global food crisis of 2008hit Asia particularly hard.The price of rice, Asia’spredominant staple food,rose faster and farther than almostany other food, placing enormouspressure on millions of poorconsumers who spend a substantialportion of their income on the grain.And, despite higher prices,farmers, too, face formidablechallenges to make rice productionprofitable. With fertilizer pricesskyrocketing, farmers more than everneed to be creative, resourceful, andadaptive in their nutrient management.This is the story of JohnnyTejeda, a 46-year-old Filipino ricefarmer who took the risk of deviatingfrom the traditional way of applyingfertilizer. Mr. Tejeda adopted arelatively new practice known assite-specific nutrient management(SSNM), which allows farmers to“feed” rice with nutrients as and whenneeded (see figure on page 34). Non-SSNM fertilizer recommendationsavailable to Mr. Tejeda prescribedhigher rates of some nutrient sourcesand did not provide such detailedguidelines on the optimal distributionand timing of nutrients during thegrowing season.According to Roland Buresh,soil scientist at the InternationalRice Research Institute (IRRI) andone of the lead developers of SSNM,the approach helps rice farmers “toincrease their profit by optimallysupplying their crop with essentialnutrients.” Moreover, by applyingneed-based nitrogen (N), phosphorus(P), and potassium (K) fertilizer,farmers can not only boost theirincome, they can also reduce theincidence of pests and diseases.Mr. Tejeda owns 1.3 hectares ofland in Iloilo Province, Philippines.One of the top five rice-producingprovinces in the country, Iloilo(pronounced “Ilo-ilo”) is the ricegranary of the central Philippines.Mr. Tejeda’s municipality ofTigbauan, a 30-minute drive fromIloilo City, is composed of 52 villageswith a total population of 57,000.Ninety percent of the municipality’sapproximately 9,000 hectares aredevoted to agriculture, with about4,550 hectares planted to rice and anaverage farm size of 0.5 hectare.“Life is tough nowadays,” says Mr.Tejeda. “The gasoline cost is so highthat it shoots up the cost of preparingthe land for rice cultivation. Fertilizerinputs are so expensive.”In 2007, the price of urea (N)fertilizer was 850 Philippine pesos(US$17.50); as of October 2008, it wasPhP 1,950 ($40). NPK fertilizer wasPhP 700 ($14.40) in 2007, but PhP1,840 ($39) as of October 2008.Filipino farmers considerfertilizers as “vitamins,” helpingto protect plants against illness ordisease, and as “food,” essentialfor fast and healthy plant growth.Without fertilizers, farmers believeplants to be malnourished. Becausefarmers associate healthy plants withgreenness, these beliefs have ledmany Filipino farmers to associatefertilizers predominantly with N.Thus, because N is responsible for32 Rice Today January-March 2009