Their appeal was made in the heels of the unintentional destruction of an electric post in a rice field in a Nueva Ecija town due to the burning of rice straw.
“It happened on a rice farm in Talavera, Nueva Ecija recently,” said Ernest Vidal, regional corporate communications officer of the NGCP in Central Luzon. “The post was destroyed when the rice straw of the newly threshed palay crop was burned by an unidentified farmer. It caused power destruction in many towns for several hours.”
The open-field burning of rice straw of the rice crop is a common practice of rice farmers. Several towns and cities have passed ordinances making the practice unlawful but remained unheeded by many farmers.
It was noted, however, that the burning of rice straw in open field is practiced only by farmers using mini-threshers in threshing the palay crop.
Those using combined harvester-thresher machine don’t have piles of rice straw as the equipment naturally spreads it on the open field as it harvests and threshes.
Immediate burning of the rice straw is considered by many farmers as the best way to dispose this agricultural waste. If not disposed of readily, they said the scattered piles of rice straw will make the plowing of the soil for next cropping farm difficult.
Environmentalists have been howling protests against it citing greenhouse effects but have remained unheeded to a large extent.
“Whenever there is disruption in our power service, particularly when it involves destroyed posts, it will take hours for our personnel to locate it and do the necessary replacements,” Vidal said.
Vidal also said they have also appealed to slash-and-burn farmers in mountainous areas to refrain from burning debris near the NGCP’s electric posts to prevent possible disruption of electric service. Particularly vulnerable for possible destruction by fire, he said, are the electric posts along the service line from this city to the province of Aurora.
Officials of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) said earlier that the rice straw, if allowed to decay on the farm, can provide nutrients to the soil, such as nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and sulfur. They also stressed that the burning of rice straw causes air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogenoxide, and sulfur dioxide.
The PhilRice officials advised farmers to spread the rice straw on the rice field and allow it to decay. They said that the rice straw easily decays once it is soaked in water.
Animal experts of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) said they are promoting technologies on how the rice straw can be easily baled for use as feedstuff.
