Research Details

Development and Assessment of Organic Production Management Technologies for Rice-based and Upland Agroecosystem

Floramante Pastor, Noralyn Legaspi, Lea Agbigay, Mario Remolacio, Corazon Diana Pastor, Maria Concepcion Birginias, Benito Balneg, Rodel Banez

Category

Project

Status

Completed

Duration

Jan 1, 2011 -
May 31, 2016

Component Studies

  1. • Transitional Performance of Different Rice-based and Upland Cropping Patterns During the Organic Conversion Period (Study 1)
  2. • Transitional Performance of Different Rice-based Cropping Patterns Under Outright Organic Conversion (Study 2)
  3. • Postproduction Handling Strategies for Organic Farming (Study 3)
  4. • Organic (Solid and Liquid) Fertilizer Production Strategies (Study 4)
  5. • Incidence of Insect Pests and Natural Enemies Under Abrupt and Gradual Organic Conversion for Rice-based Agro-ecosystem (Study 5)

Parent Program

→ Integrated Management Strategies for Sustainable Organic Farming in the Ilocos Region (Program)

Related Projects

  1. • Establishment of Seed Production and Storage System for a Sustainable Organic Crop Production (Proj. 2)
  2. • Development of Strategies for Livestock Production in an Organic Farming System (Proj. 3)

Brief Description

This is the Project 1 of the program "Integrated Management Strategies for Sustainable Organic Farming in the Ilocos Region".

Organic farming in the country is now widely promoted and encouraged to be practiced by farmers because of the many known distinctive attributes to address problems on deteriorating natural/environmental support systems (i.e. soil and water quality, loss of biodiversity, etc) and human and animal health concerns. However, despite of these, farmers have varied reactions because of some technical and economic considerations if they have to adopt organic farming. One of the notable concerns of farmers in Region 1 and CAR is the remarkable decline of production during organic conversion (Pastor, et.al., 2010). This is reflected as declining household income which eventually affects their subsistence and other economic activities. This risk has made many farmers reluctant to adopt organic farming. Because of this, there is really a need to back-up promotional efforts with research endeavours geared toward showing them the real transitional production trend during conversion, long term and sustainable benefits of organic farming, and if possible developing potential organic production technologies/strategies that can be possibly adopted by farmers during conversion, hence this project.

The objectives of this project can be realized through the implementation of the following component studies:

  1. Transitional performance of different rice-based and upland cropping patterns during the organic conversion period
  2. Transitional performance of different rice-based cropping patterns under outright organic conversion
  3. Postproduction handling strategies
  4. Pest and nutrient management strategies
  5. Organic (liquid and solid) fertilizer production strategies
Target beneficiaries are the conventional farmers, organic farmers, consumers and communities.

Expected Output

Anticipated outcomes from the organic farming management strategies for crops and livestock under lowland and upland agroecosystems are as follows:

  • pest management strategies
  • nutrient and nutrition/feed management strategies for crops and livestock
  • organic fertilizer production strategies
  • postproduction handling strategies
  • seed production technologies
  • seed handling and storage strategies

Abstract

This research primarily assessed organic production management system for rice-based agroecosystem during the conversion period in two schemes: abrupt and gradual. Different cropping patterns involving dry season (DS) crops were evaluated along with fertilizer management options.

Generally, there was no marked trend on yield increase in all crops in the different cropping patterns evaluated though an increase in the yield of rice was observed toward the end of the conversion period. Of the DS crops, tomato has the highest potential for organic conversion scheme as it consistently yielded high throughout the conversion period. Insect pest population was found higher in plots applied with inorganic fertilizer and as the conversion progresses, insect pest population decreases while the population of natural enemies increases.

Also, there was no significant trend on the yield of crops applied with green manure (GM) but incorporating GM at maturity could give comparable benefit to that incorporated at flowering stage. An increasing trend of nitrogen (N) and organic matter (OM) content in both conversion schemes was observed. For the manuring option, though its effect on yield was not clearly established, it still has a favorable prospect for organic conversion because of its positive effect on soil fertility.