PhilRice embarks on new movement to transform farmers into millionaires

By Leilanie G. Adriano

Staff reporter

Batac City—The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) is embarking on a new movement which aims to inspire farmers on becoming a millionaire is possible in agriculture.

Leading the way in this rural transformation movement, Dr. Ronan Zagado of PhilRice Central Experiment Station (CES) said having the right mix of strategies and practices would ensure farmers they can make it big in farming.

Attended by over a hundred farmers, researchers, extension workers, teachers and students from the Ilocos region including its neighboring provinces in Cagayan and Apayao, a briefing on the rural transformation movement is being conducted at the PhilRice auditorium today to help farmers achieve this goal: to achieve at least P1 million gross income per hectare per year.

According to Dr. Zagado, PhilRice has developed a wide range of technologies and production models to increase the yield of farmers and at the same time convert this into sustainable income.

“If farmers were only able to harvest 30 cavan of rice per hectare before, they can now produce more than 100 cavan per hectare should they adopt these technologies,” he said.

Converting a rural farming community into an organized group in partnership with support organizations which can compete in the world market, he said farmers can take advantage of the Asean Integration program of the government to create an impact in this rural transformation movement.

Dubbed as “Kaya Natin Maging Milyonaryo” challenge, Rafael Abaya, a psychology graduate and a farmer model from Caterman, Candon City in Ilocos Sur said the adoption of new technologies such as the modified rice seeding has helped him transform his five-hectare farm planted with various crops, yielding a gross income of more than a million per cropping season

“Becoming a millionaire is not an overnight job. How early you wake in the morning? Every minute counts and it requires a lot of hard work, discipline and patience to achieve this goal,” he told farmer-participants at the forum.

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