ECHAGUE, Isabela—The Cagayan Valley chapter of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in partnership with Isabela State University, is pushing to increase rice production in the region through scientific farming methods in barangays.
Gary Chong, PCCI Santiago City President, said the partnership aims to reach the goals presented by Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia to President Rodrigo Duterte in the 2040 “Ambisyon Natin” government roadmap.
“Our aim is for every Filipino to live in a prosperous, predominantly middle-class society where no one is poor by having enough supply of rice,” Chong said.
The collaboration between PCCI and ISU would realize the goal of increasing rice production in Region 2 through the empowerment of scientific farming in villages, he added.
Cagayan Valley has at least 160,000 hectares of irrigated farm lands, 20,000 hectares of upland and rain-fed farms, and 150,000 hectares of corn land along riverside and rolling terrain.
The group’s recent studies say these areas could yield a maximum of 15 tons per hectare or 15,000 kilos of wet crops amounting to P210,000 in earnings per hectare provided scientific farming is applied.
On a single cropping within six months, farmers could earn over P25,000 per month net per hectare from their rice harvests, excluding other agricultural products like fruits, corn, vegetables and coffee.
The study also says that when a Cagayano farmer exceeds the baseline P25,000 monthly income from scientific farming, no farmer’s wife would opt to work overseas as a domestic helper.