Rice Field

[evli1966 88]

I haven't posted in a while here but wanted some feedback.

Me and Josephine have been doing well in our 4 yr relationship waiting on Visa ( 3yr) and we decided to make some sort if income for her.

She does well when she cooks and sells as a street vendor but I still send her roughly 30,000php a month.

This past week we purchased a rice field 1 hectacre (400,000php) it is my understanding this was a great price.

Purchase made at the notary and land title filed in Josephine's name

It is also my understadning it should produce a revenue every 3 months from 70,000php to 100,000php after paying for seed, workers to plant and harvest/dry

Josephine is pretty amazing; according to her she was able get the land at the time of the sale for 350,000 this allowed her to buy a hand tractor for about 50,000 that was needed.

I have full faith in Josephine what I dont have faith in is my full understadning of this earning potential. (it sounds to good to be true)

What I am interested in is what is the true potential of this field and if I should purchase another if the opportunity arises?

[renecherubs 18]

i'm not an expert in rice fields but i would just share what i know. based on my knowledge, a rice field is measured by the ganta (the number of seedlings that it can be planted on a ricefield) and not by hectare. pls correct me if i'm wrong.back at home, when we want to buy a ricefield, we'll know how big is the ricefield by asking: "how much ganta of rice can be planted on this ricefield" then, the question is immediately followed by another question which is: " is it rainfeed or irrigation?" as these questions are those that would determine if the ricefield is worth buying or not or if the rice is reasonable or not.

making it notarized is the first step of transferring the name of the land from the previous owner to the new owner. the second is getting it titled if it is not yet titled. filing for land titles is expensive in the philippines. as from our province it could range from 10,000 php to 25,000 php. it depends on whether or not the land tax was religiously paid or not. some transactions could be that the seller will be the one to notarized the deed of sale while others both seller and buyer divide the cost and others the buyer will be the one to notarize it.it all depends on the agreement. titled lands are better as you only need to transfer it to the new buyer.

i don't know how much a 1 hectare ricefield needs for fertilizer. but i do know that 1 sack of fertilizer costs around 1500php - 2,200php. wow, the ricefield must be huge to yield a 70,000-100,000/3 months. average ricefield back at home, just the average which yield around more or less 100 cans of rice/harvest or 33 sacks of rice. one sack of rice contains 3 cans or rice.once they would be milled and processed into ready to cook rice, it would go down to about 28 sacks of rice. the number of rice will go down as the unclean rice still has rice shells on it and maybe hay with it. this number still has not yet been subtracted with the share for the fertilizer and labor. all in all, around 42,000php will be the yield. you still need to minus the labor and the share of the fertilizer and all.

by the way, rainfeed ricefield can only be planted once a year while irrigation ricefield is 2x-3x a year. it all depends on the water and the weather.

and it is true that a tractor is around 50,000php. but you need a truck to carry that around or else you need to hire one which is an additional expense. hoping this help you. maybe others have more accurate infos.

[renecherubs 18]

by the way, ricefield is expensive compare to coco land. but, ricefield is risky investment compare to cocoland. ricefield also needs capital every planting up to harvesting. then, from there you'll reap you rewards after. while a cocoland, well, when you purchased it, it has coconut trees already. and it is granted every 3 months you can harvest the coconuts for copra. the only expenses is the labor. sometimes, copra is higher than rice while on other times rice is higher than copra.

to lessen any doubts on this sale, ask for the copy of the deed of sale and the tax declaration copy from the assesor's office of this ricefield. it is stated there how much this ricefield yield per harvest. it is all stated there.good luck.

[Mogambi 96]

I don't know much about rice, but I will say this as I've been leaning about things in the Philippines. First it sure seems to me that whenever anyone there is presented an opportunity, they get somewhat blinded by other aspects of it. So we've had so many people offer us business opportunties there, like land especially, farmland, rubber plantations, rice fields, coconut trees, etc. Of course in all of these, I never believe whatever they tell me I can earn every month. There's simply no way. The other thing of course is that whatever number someone tells you, will never include all the 'expenses' that go along with that!

70,000 to 1000,000 is a HUGE amount of money for someone there, and you have to ask yourself, if someone could really have made that, why on earth would they sell that land for only an amount they could have made in nine months! If you could really make that, they would be keeping it.

Then again, and I know I'm stereotyping, but Filipinos seem more susceptible to believing that there is some great opportunity where maybe there really isn't one. This is not surprising in a poor country, everyone wants to find the bargain, the great deal.

A hectare is about 2.5 acres, not particularly huge, but I'm sure there is income to be made, probably not nearly as much as you might have been led to believe, but over time, if it's handled right, it should generate some sustainable income, and that's a good thing, especially once your fiancé is here, her family can hopefully at least sustain themselves. That's what we keep trying to do as well, help my fiancés family have a sustainable income.

I wouldn't purchase another just yet, that's still a fair amount of money (about $10,000 right?) so you might want to make sure this one pans out.

Also, not prying, but why have you been waiting three years for your visa?

[evli1966 88]

Thanks for the replies it is

It is irrigation fed

Jo's family owns the fields adjacent to this field; that is the high and low yield they get

The entire field is used except the paths between them

The engineer marked the land

A land title was filed

I did not ask about fertilizer

If the yield are like what they tell me then I plan to buy more butnI am at a wait and see

Your not prying itnis a legitmate question; I fall under then AWA (no further explaination needed if you know how long the process takes for us no matter circumstance that makes it a AWA)

We have house in Cebu and a leased townhome in Makati (house needs lots of work) and in case we are denied I need to ensure the rental income here is matched by income there or at least close to it before retiring from my job and moving there. (USA Can bite me ifnthey think I will give up my life for a mistake 20+ years ago)

I will inquire about the fertilizer and add this to the costs of operations.

Even if it yields 1/2 what they say $3600-4000 usd a year is worth 10k investment.

Edited July 14, 2012 by evli1966

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

I don't understand AWA, is that mercy, a place, or an acronym?

One other thing to consider is the prevalence of storms in the area. A rice crop can be completely wiped out by a typhoon. Where my wife is from in Luzon last year, several typhoons came thru and ruined many rice fields, and it devastated many whose only source of income was rice. Not that one can predict storms, obviously, but it's something to consider when trying to generate income.

[Mogambi 96]

Ah, well yes, now I know what AWA is and can only imagine how difficult or next to impossible it's going to be.

[neodragon0l 6]

I am not an expert on the rice business, but I am basing this on my finacee's professional knowledge and tons of experience.

The price of the 1 ha depends on the land and what other things you can do with it and the location is crucial. For example, the value of our rice fields in my area is nothing compared to the rice fields in Batangas. One reason is because you have to assess whether the climate there makes it harder to get a good cropping. Is it rain fed or is there irrigation? Is there an electricity line to pump out deep well water? Those are the questions that increases and decreases the value of the land. I don't know if 400,000 is good for 1 ha. My fiancee has to set it in order to give an opinion. Someone was trying to sell us 2.5 ha of land for 1.3 millions Php. With clean title which is by the way another major headache in the Philippines. Never buy land with w/o a title or a land dispute.

As for income, 1 ha of land in a good location can get you at least 100 sacks of rice. That's the general formula anyway. Rainfed rice fields can only go for 1-2 croppings a year. An irrigated land can go for 2-3. This is again dependent on the land. Then, again you have to rest the land to allow it get its nutrients back. Planting high value crops (vegetables) can change the nutrients of the land. If you do the match, the prevailing price of rice in my area is about 700 pesos per sack. Some areas use gantang which is a different price unit. In theory, you can get at least 70,000 php. But you have to share that with the people who helped in the rice field. I say I get a little of 50% of 70k php. I will not get into the specifics of profit sharing because i will end up writing a book.

My grandfather used carabaos, but my fiancee's family use tractors. 50k php is a reasonable price for a tractor. I believe a new one goes at 65k php. However,if 1 ha is your only ricefield, it is probably best to just hire a tractor group. Some people still like the carabao. I feel like it is another mouth to feed in the economics of things. Basically, there is a group of individuals (usually five of them) who have their own hand tractors and go around to plow your land for small portion of the revenue. It more or less comes out to a daily wage. I say this because plowing with a hand tractor gets the job done in a few hours. While you wait for the next cropping, your tractor is pretty much useless you rent it out to others.

I am more a livestock person in the Philippines. Best of luck to your new venture.

Edited July 14, 2012 by neodragon0l

[neodragon0l 6]

Also, I agree with Mogambi. I am going to tell you that running a business in the Philippines is not a joke because you are offered a lot of opportunities ranging from condo sales to farmlands (rice, mangoes, rubber, etc). Just because one person saw his neighbor make money on one thing does not mean there is enough opportunity for both of you. Like any business, be inquisitive as much as possible. The only reason I know about the rice fields is I ask my fiancee, her family, family, her friends, and anybody I ask about. Whether it is 500 dollars or 5000 dollars, it is still money that I have to earn here in the U.S. By the way, fertilizer will definitely adds to the cost. I think you get $2000 dollars (net) per year for a irrigated 1 hectare. Anyway, your fiancee seems to have a good family. They definitely won't let the land go to waste. Trust is the biggest thing. Good luck.

[evli1966 88]

Thanks for the replies

Clarification

Not irrigated by pumps but by pond fed from river

The funniest is they kept saying 3 harvest a year so i asked how many harvest in lasr 4 years; 2008=3; 2009=2; 2010=2; 2011=2; this year will be 3....so i asked sweet hunny bun to think about it and give me the correct answer and she said 2(did i mention i love her so much)

But the overwhelming answer for yields was 90, 93, 101, 95, first harvest this year was 98

Sold each sack sold this year for 1500php each

[Mogambi 96]

Not too bad it sounds like if all the numbers are real.