Loboc, Bohol ─ Although some of this town’s residents earn from its booming tourism industry, Primitivo “Tibong” Sariguimba still earns his keep from farming.
Sariguimba is the Magsasaka Siyentista (MS) of a Farmers Information and Technology Services (FITS) center situated here.
Being an MS, Sariguimba became a cooperator of PCARRD’s Science and Technology-based Farm (STBF) on organic aromatic rice production. During a recently held STBF Technology Field Day in Barangay Jimilian, he discussed how the application of science and technology (S&T) interventions has improved his rice production.
He earned an additional P34,200 through his adoption of S&T interventions which include controlled irrigation technique, straight planting, and use of organic fertilizer and pesticides. 
He also emphasized the use of 10 sacks of vermicast at 30 kilograms/sack for every 1,500 square meter and of fermented plant juice as natural insect attractants.
He compared the production of hybrid rice variety with that of aromatic rice and pointed out that while in the 1st cropping cycle, he harvested only 3 tons per hectare of aromatic rice, the yield increased to 4 tons per hectare in the 4th cropping cycle.
According to the MS, while the hybrid rice variety gives him 5 tons per hectare, he gets more income with the aromatic rice as it is considered a first class variety with higher price of P70 per kilogram milled rice compared to only P35 per kilogram of the hybrid rice.
Incidentally, the technology field day was a collaborative undertaking of the Municipal Agriculture Office of Loboc, Bohol Island State University, Central Visayas Consortium for Integrated Regional Research and Development, and PCARRD.
Loboc Mayor Leon A. Calipusan with Mr. Cosme Ochoa, chair of Agriculture Committee of the Sanguniang Bayan; and farmers from 14 barangays in Loboc and from the adjacent municipalities of Bataan, Carmen and Clarin attended the technology field day.