FutureRice: Preparing the Future for the Rice Farmers

Majority of the farmers in the country today are within 50 to 60 year old age range while younger generations opt to pursue careers far from agriculture. How can rice farming survive in the future with these problems?

The need to aid the aging farmers in their laborious farm work is a growing concern in the agricultural sector. The introduction of new farming technologies, practices and trainings are being developed in PhilRice to increase the income and improve the quality of life of the rice farmers. 

Farmers and barangay leaders from Brgy. Maligaya and Mabini participated

in the first Field day harvesting at the FutureRice farm

Besides the decreasing number of farmers in the country, other problems in agriculture are environment-related. Several losses in harvest are due to the ill effects of climate change and pollution.

Climate change, a phenomenon that alter the weather patterns is caused by global warming or the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This results to the melting of the icebergs, severe drought or the El Nino phenomenon, and flooding in different areas around the world. Fossil fuel, a non-renewable energy source is continuously depleting while the demand and price of fuel go up. Eventually, the world will reach the point when there are no more fossil fuel to burn for energy.

  

Alternative sources of energy must be tapped so we can have a backup plan when this peak oil crisis occurs. The conversion of agricultural lands to industrial zones has significantly decreased the green area that provides the food in our table. The pollution on the waters, soils, air and land from manufactured chemicals are also factors that contribute to environmental degradation.

The FutureRice program banner emphasizing Clean, Green, Practical and 

Smart farming principles through the application of natural farming, use of 

alternative energy, farm mechanization and farm automation

FutureRice Program was introduced to organize, innovate and promote new knowledge and information on Clean, Green, Practical and Smart farming for a Competitive, Sustainable and Resilient (Clean GPS for CSR) rice farming industry.  The three key components of the program include knowledge management, smart farms and rice academy. 

In the Knowledge management component, all the local and global technologies that adhere to Clean GPS are collected and investigated for possible implementation in the FutureRice demo farm. 

Existing organic and modern farms with conservation practices and green technologies are visited and considered as platform for systems integration in the FutureRice farm. 

FutureRice farm is now showcasing technologies in rice farming like reduced tillage technology, ecological engineering, rice-duck farming system and farm mechanization. The next phase will include fishery, vegetable, farm automation, alternative energy and livestock components.

Through the rice academy component, the program can provide capacity building activities for new generation of rice stakeholders. The demo farm will serve as the boot camp or the learning venue when it comes to actual demonstration of future farming.

In this new farming initiative, sustainable agriculture, a key to food security is achievable.  

Writer: Wendy Hernandez

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