The chair of the Mindanao Development Authority has again lauded Negros Occidental’s practice on inter-cropping of sugarcane and rice, that he said addresses the “age-old curse Tiempo Muerto.”
Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol, former secretary of the Department of Agriculture, said the province has found an answer to “Tiempo Muerto (Dead Season),” which was coined to describe joblessness and hunger during the period between planting and harvesting of sugarcane.
This is the period, which stretches for about five to six months, when hunger stalks the families of sugarcane workers, he said in a Facebook post.
“Seeing a window of opportunity to grow rice alongside young sugarcane, the Provincial Agriculture Office of Negros Occidental and sugar farmer participants initiated the Sugarcane-Rice Intercropping Program early this year,” he said.
Using an inbred rice variety, seeds were sown in between rows of newly-planted sugarcane giving the rice a head start in growing, ” Piñol added.
The practice yielded two metric tons of palay, or unhusked rice, per hectare.
“When milled and dried, the harvest could yield 24 bags of rice which is more than enough to feed a family of five for one whole year,” Piñol said.
He said that the Negros’ experiment is not only an answer to the dead season but is a perfect demonstration of the philosophy of Maximum Land Utilization which he advocates.
Sugarcane-rice intercropping could be adopted in some areas of Mindanao with sugar mills and thousands of hectares of sugarcane fields such as Bukidnon, North Cotabato and Davao del Sur to ensure food sufficiency among sugarcane farmers and workers, he said.
“MinDA will replicate the Negros Occidental experiment in pilot areas in the three provinces with sugar farms this planting season,” he said.
He thanked the leaders of the province, including Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson and Provincial Agriculturist Japhet Masculino, “for showing us the way.”*