Onion farmers in Ecija town mull shift to rice, corn

BONGABON, Nueva Ecija — This town could run the risk of losing its title as the country’s onion basket if its 1,800 onion farm families decide to go full-time into planting corn, rice and other high-value crops.

Onion farmers recently suffered losses of up to P60 million due to calamities. Local officials said that local onion farmers are planting other crops because of the spate of calamities that have ruined onion yields in the past few months.

Mayor Beth Gamilla told The STAR that the municipal government is now encouraging local onion farmers to try other crops to somehow recoup losses incurred in onion production.

But Gamilla discounted the possibility of onion farmers totally shifting to other crops, saying they still consider it their source of income, allaying fears that because of the perennial losses, they might decide to abandon onion farming altogether.

"Farmers still don’t want to stop growing onions even if they aren’t earning that much money," she said.

During the last onion-planting season, farmers suffered massive production losses, with 50 to 70 percent of the planted area or around 3,000 hectares destroyed. This town produces 70 percent of the country’s onions, which are shipped to various destinations such as Bicol, Laguna, Batangas, Cebu and Mindanao.

Luchie Cena, municipal agriculturist, said the Department of Agriculture (DA) has prepared a program for crop diversification for onion farmers in the town, including high-value crops.

"We are now in the process of selecting areas for corn and tomato production," she said.

Cena said the municipal government is also launching a 750-hectare rice program for the mass production of the Bigante rice variety that produces around 300 bags and will pursue a GMA Hybrid Rice commercialization program. She said a certain barangay in the town would be developed into a model for Bigante production.

The municipal government would provide the technology to farmers and will put into operation a five-hectare demo farm in Barangay Vega to kick off the program.

"We intend to make the country’s onion bowl into a showcase of hybrid rice production," she said.

Cena said she foresees no radical shift or trend towards onion farmers becoming rice farmers and onions would remain the main crop in the town.