Agusan farmer projects P882K income from 6-hectare hybrid rice farm

PROSPERIDAD, Agusan del Sur — While thousands of farmers across the province watched their fields parched from the prolonged dry spell,  Roger Villegas stood beside stacks of freshly harvested palay on Wednesday, looking at an estimated P1.26 million payoff.

Based on official crop sampling conducted by Department of Agriculture (DA) Caraga technicians during a local harvest festival, Villegas’s six-hectare hybrid rice model farm in Barangay San Vicente registered a yield exceeding 10 metric tons per hectare.

Scaled across his entire landholding, the projected 60-metric-ton output equals roughly 1,000 sixty-kilogram (kg) bags of palay, or 60,000 kg, positioning Villegas to earn an estimated gross revenue of P1.26 million at the prevailing fresh farmgate price of P21.00 per kilogram.

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READ: Agri losses from dry spell in Agusan del Sur hit P3.5B

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The field test results—equivalent to over 166 bags per hectare—are more than double the province’s typical baseline of 70 to 80 bags, and nearly two and a half times the national average yield of roughly 4.1 metric tons per hectare, showcasing how hybrid rice technology and functional communal irrigation can insulate farmers from severe climate stress.

 “I am very happy because our yield reached more than 10 metric tons per hectare,” Villegas, chairman of the Agusan del Sur (ADS) Magkasama Irrigators Association, told agricultural stakeholders in Cebuano. “It is truly vital that we adapt to new technologies so we can improve our livelihood.”

His projected windfall comes at a critical time for local agriculture. In late September, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan placed Agusan del Sur under a state of calamity under Resolution No. 585-26 after prolonged El Niño conditions damaged 36.4 percent of agricultural commodities and slashed watershed water availability by nearly a third.

Provincial Agriculturist Armando Valiente earlier estimated farm losses at P3.5 billion, noting that water shortages left some 21,600 farmers unable to plant and shrank the July cropping area from the usual 45,000 hectares to roughly 8,000.

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Yet inside the 100-hectare San Vicente model farm, established under the Department of Agriculture’s Masagana Rice Industry Development Program (MRIDP), high-yield hybrid seeds, specialized fertilizers, and intact communal irrigation told an entirely different story.

Villegas’s milestone is the second major production breakthrough in the province in less than a week. On Oct. 23 in Barangay Concepcion in Sta. Josefa town, smallholder Nilo Dalid shattered his previous ceiling of 76 bags from his 1.2-hectare plot by hauling in an actual harvest of 116 bags (totaling 7,888 kg of fresh palay), generating an immediate gross return of P165,648 at P21.00 per kilo.

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Dr. Frisco Malabanan, senior consultant for the National Rice Program (NRP), said the sustained results across both irrigators’ groups provide tangible evidence for smallholders who remain cautious about adopting modern farming inputs.

READ: El Niño to bring drought to all provinces by March 2027 – DOST

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“The high yield demonstrated here serves as a concrete benchmark for ramping up rice production in Prosperidad and stands as an inspiration for other farmers to adopt the technology,” Malabanan said./coa