By Trina Mendoza 

IT ALL STARTED with a sincere desire to improve rice-growing conditions and farmers’ livelihoods. Greta Gabinete, then a PhD student majoring in soil science at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and a professor at West Visayas State University (WVSU), College of Agriculture and Forestry, Iloilo, thought of how to increase rice yields in her province. “Iloilo is considered the rice granary of region six, and it’s usually second or third in rice production in the Philippines,” says Dr. Gabinete. “But the high production of rice is not due to the high yield per unit area of rice but to the large area devoted to rice production. I saw great potential for improving the productivity of rice in the province.”

She found out that farmers did not practice effective nutrient management, and their timing in applying fertilizer was off. They were used to applying fertilizers for crops with longer maturity periods of 100–120 days. If they use early-maturing crops (90–95 days), they still use the same schedule in applying fertilizer. Iloilo farmers were also applying either too much or too little fertilizer. In addition, the Department of Agriculture (DA) was on the lookout for new technologies in rice production.

With all these thoughts at the back of her mind, she approached the International Rice Research Institute and presented her study proposal to Dr. Roland Buresh, her would-be supervisor. Dr. Buresh then introduced her to site-specific nutrient management (SSNM).

Dr. Gabinete proceeded with a study on formulating fertilizer recommendations for rice in Iloilo using soil- and plant-based approaches. Hers was not an easy task. Starting in the wet season in May 2005, she encouraged 59 farmers from five towns to participate in her study. They established omission plots to determine the nutrients already present in the soil. The nutrient that is lacking to achieve the yield target dictates which fertilizer to apply.

With the help of Dr. Buresh, Dr. Gabinete formulated recommendations and tried them out when the dry season came. Only 14 farmers tested the recommendations, while the others continued the omission plots. Finally, after the dry season, they refined the initial recommendations based on their field experiences and created a one-page handout for Iloilo Province. This can now be seen at www.irri.org/irrc/ssnm.

“SSNM, combined with an improved lower seed rate of 100–120 kilograms per hectare, increased yields by 0.9 ton per hectare higher than farmers’ practices,” says Dr. Gabinete.

Her study was finished in March 2006, but, since then, there has remained a bigger task at hand. “I felt that I needed to bring this technology to Iloilo,” says Dr. Gabinete. After graduation, she went home with the one-page handout and wrote letters to the DA’s regional director, the provincial agriculturist, the director of the Western Visayas Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium, and the president and the research director of WVSU, informing them of the new technology and her commitment to pass it on to farmers.

In January, she presented the recommendations at the monthly regional technical working group meeting of the DA, where all the project leaders and provincial agriculturists attended. This April, she will be presenting SSNM to municipal agricultural officers with her UPLB collaborators. In the coming months, Dr. Gabinete will be sharing the technology with Iloilo farmers through field demonstrations and focus group discussions.

Two projects have sprung from her research, in which nutrient management will be integrated with best management practices. One is a collaboration with the IRRC Labor Productivity Work Group. With weed scientists David Johnson and Joel Janiya, she will study the productivity of direct-seeded rice with SSNM, sown using a drum seeder (see RIPPLE Vol. 1, Nos. 1 and 2 for more on the drum seeder) with added potassium and zinc fertilizers.

Another study under development is a comparison of different techniques to determine nutrient requirements, with Dr. Wilfredo Cosico and Dr. Rodrigo Badayos of UPLB’s Department of Soil Science.

But first on her list is a trip back to the farmers. “I promised them I would return once I had the recommendations,” says Dr. Gabinete. “And to say thanks.”

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