# Rice Farming



## Manitoba (Jun 25, 2014)

Can anyone educate me on the economics of rice farming in the Philippines. I have been asked to evaluate a proposal. I can handle the analysis but need some good information on costs, yelds, risks etc.

How much is rice far land usually worth? 
What is the size of a typical parcel?
How much land is usually considered a minimum viable operation?
What are the production costs? 
How is irrigation water controlled and allocated, especially in drought/shortage conditions?
What are the typical average yields? Minimum and maximum yields?
Is land limited to only rice or is there a possability of crop rotations or alternate crops?
What is the price of rice at the farm gate? 
How is the rice industry organized? Co-ops? Marketing Boards?
How is it marketed? 
Transported?
How is land typically rented out? Share of the crop or cash basis? Is land rented out or would an absentee owner simply hire the farm labour?
What are considered better areas of the country for rice farming?
Other risk factors?

Any good web sites with specific information? So far all I have found is outdated stuff or some that is so general and reduced to national averages to be of little value.

Any help or pointers in the right direction will be appreciated.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

Wow, how long is a piece of string. It depends.......we had a small parcel of rice land which the owner needed a loan, unfortunately they built SCTEX through it a couple of years later so the owner came into some money. Anyway it was profitable but not hugely, it all depended on if we could get the forth wet season crop in. This forth crop was always risky as it could be destroyed by a typhoon. The big problem with rice is irrigation, we were river fed but if you have to pump from a well the costs go up significantly, also pests can wipe out a crop, you get empty seeds. As to inter-cropping the soil goes like concrete, nothing else will grow in it.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

One of our expats mentioned that he has a rice mill so another way to make money from rice and that's if a rice mill is needed badly in the area. I'd go for rice farming if on family land only.


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## Lunkan (Aug 28, 2020)

Manitoba said:


> Can anyone educate me on the economics of rice farming in the Philippines. I have been asked to evaluate a proposal. I can handle the analysis but need some good information on costs, yelds, risks etc.
> How much is rice far land usually worth?


Big difference depening of where and soil quality. E g at Palawan good rice land at/close ok road can be bought for 400 000 per hectare.


Manitoba said:


> What is the size of a typical parcel?


 From tiny to huge 
BUT there are some restrictions against max size when BUYING now. I believe max 5 hectares. But OLD owners don't have such restrictions.
BUT you can LEASE unlimited.


Manitoba said:


> How much land is usually considered a minimum viable operation?


 Depend of if you find good workers doing with it by HAND A big rice field owner said a good 5 person team get things done much faster than a whole village. Their land is several fields some distance in betweem

If you go for machinery you need biger land to be worth and at same place.


Manitoba said:


> What are the production costs?


 Depend much of soil type and nutrision level, fertilizer can cost much different. Back around 4 years ago normal cost for fertilizer, seeds and pesticies but NOT including the work part it was common with 20 000 pesos per hectare. 



Manitoba said:


> How is irrigation water controlled and allocated, especially in drought/shortage conditions?


 More and more water dams are built to solve drought problems. Water can be regulated by open and close water to get in and out. In some places need pumps when elevation don't solve it.
ONE crop is common to get per yeareven without irrigation, sometimes two. When a damm has enough water same field can get a THIRD crop in a year.


Manitoba said:


> What are the typical average yields? Minimum and maximum yields?


 I don't know average but I suppouse Department of Agriculture can tell you. If the farmers tell them correct 
There can be huge differences from very good harvest to (almost) nothing.
Here you get some hints: There are big regional differences in *"Harvest sharing"* but a common deal is financiere pay the other things, while farmer have land and do the work. Then financiere get money back first and then the financiere get 25-33% of the rest. In some cases financiere pay some money to the farmer during the growth too so a poor farmer can survive without taking an expensive "5-6" loan. I suppouse they split the harvest some different then. 
Two Swedes I know have done such but they asked less than 25 %. Only didn't got paid by one, all the others followed the deal. A Filipina squeezed out max as financiere and *almost doubled her money in 4 months a GOOD harvest year*. Harvest can be very much different much depening of weather, soil, seeds and skill of the farmer. And if the financiere is to stingy and don't finance enough fertilizer 

*Missing nutrisions in the soil can be seen at the color of the leaves. There is a paper with the colors which tell if and what's missing. Some fertilizer sellers have such papers which the handler can bring to fields to compare colors.*


Manitoba said:


> Is land limited to only rice or is there a possability of crop rotations or alternate crops?


 You can rotate. E g one poor farmer make in a year cycle starting when rain season start 1. rice 2. tobacco 3. Nothing because that family is to lazy  to fetch water from a close river although they are three grown up men (father and two sons) plus a big bunch of school kids in that family for a HALF hectare land!!! I haven't researched what's best to rotate with rice.


Manitoba said:


> What is the price of rice at the farm gate?
> How is the rice industry organized? Co-ops? Marketing Boards?


 Price differers much depending of things as when and where. 
Rice is a SCARY business by it's hard regulated by the government, you can't know what they will decide.


Manitoba said:


> How is it marketed?
> Transported?


 Big differences. E g 
/sell to miller
/sell to trader. But many normal traders CAN'T go on their normal trading routes to other islands because of covid. 
/pay the miller and sell tthe milled rice yourself. 

EXTRA to think of because of covid it can be good to grow food in general in a "covid region" where it's short of that crop because it's easier to solve transportation then. (You can check at farmers markets although I suppouse they have rice everywhere  but for rotation crops.)


Manitoba said:


> How is land typically rented out? Share of the crop or cash basis? Is land rented out or would an absentee owner simply hire the farm labour?


 I don't know common lease fee for other than forests and then it's 10% of the harvest value.
Some big corporations has* fooled* land owners to lease out for* many years* for so crap pay so no chance to sell the land because it would be terrible deal for the buyer if paying more than very litle...

There are all warriations. Common Filipinos prefer cash before geting more money later  (I have found a *few *exceptions who think ahead.)


Manitoba said:


> What are considered better areas of the country for rice farming?


 For instance Narra at Palawan is counted as a rice municipaly at the big low flat parts. If I remember correct parts of Bohol too. Beside them I don't remember because I want "opposite" to rice field land type  
There are soil type maps and weather zone maps, but I haven't researched what's best for rice.
DAMMS are an important factor so you can get more crops per year without needing to transport water. Check for NAIA damms done or comming. I prefer to try to aim at comming things  as damms and improved/new roads because land can be bought much cheaper before than after.


Manitoba said:


> Other risk factors?


 Summary: Think of weather zone and/or water access by damm, soil type which KEEP the nutrisions not poring away fertilizers. And good handlers. Bad handlers can screw up even perfect conditions 


Manitoba said:


> Any good web sites with specific information? So far all I have found is outdated stuff or some that is so general and reduced to national averages to be of little value.


 Years since I saw the part about the nutrision "messure" paper. I believe I got the info from PhilRice. 
Was it the Department of Agrculture you had checked? They have some good hints info of which *alternative* crops which gave best result per hectare the gone year. (But sometimes they have counted wrong for crops which don't give harvest the first year,) They show a top list for each year BUT sometimes to many look at it so it become overreactions so "to many" grow that the year after so prices drops much. Exceptions are onion and garlic they are normaly at ten in top, but I suppouse that depend of Phils is short of soils suiting to grow such, some of the main islands have none. The only I know suit to grow such at are in Baguio region and some land in "mountains" outside Iloilo.

But much of old information are valid still  Several things are general "for ever" (except when GMO or such change things.) (E g recently I found a very good *old* info about a tree type I think of planting telling all steps in details.)
LOOK UP with GMO. They can be forbidden to use at all in some regions, and you can't (infertile?) or illegal by patent to use seeds from the harvest before to plant next so you have to buy expensive seeds for ever. 

I suggest first you make some "Harvest sharing" to learn before you start anything big. 
Although because of covid it can be a good time to *buy* land now, some sell very cheap.
But do you know foreigners aren't allowed to own land? Except max 40 % through a corporation or company.

Concerning shorter time crops it seem to best to lease anyway. E g (before covid) a Filipino in south part of Luzon started with small owned land but earned much by leasing much land, grow vegs and transport them to be sold in Manila.


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## BusyBC57 (Apr 13, 2015)

Manitoba said:


> Can anyone educate me on the economics of rice farming in the Philippines. I have been asked to evaluate a proposal. I can handle the analysis but need some good information on costs, yelds, risks etc.
> 
> How much is rice far land usually worth?
> What is the size of a typical parcel?
> ...


All I can say is that my brother-in-law is a rice farmer and the farmers are getting screwed by politicians controlling the price of rice when the Farmers try to sell their crop. It was so bad at one point that my brother-in-law just put his sacks of rice in a warehouse for a while to see if he could get a better price later, the price didn't go up.


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