Postharvest Assessment of Rice Production in Las Navas Northern Samar Philippines

Abstract

The study conducted to determine the rice harvest for the 2011-2012 agricultural season, harvest contribution to the food availability of the households until the next harvest, identified the main constraints facing by the farmers during the season, and assess mitigating factors to overcome constraints. The survey revealed that 59% of farmers were land tenants while 20% of farmers indicated they were landowners of the land they cultivated and 21% of farmers were landless. The average production per hectare was 20.71 bags. The main factors that have contributed to very low production were the attack from pests and diseases (84%), inadequate farming technique were farmers still applying traditional farming system (trampling) due to lack of appropriate training, lack of capital to pay for proper plugging and irrigation, crop maintenance and fertilization. Farmers' own produced food lasted only an average of 5.86 months. Another source of food was like the purchase of it on local market or store (71%), rely on food casual labor or daily works (49%), taking debts from relatives (37%), selling of livestock to buy food (15%), relying on the gift (9%) and consume seeds stocks (9%) will be among the strategies to allow farmers to live up to the next harvest.