It's more than just rice with sorjan production system

The sorjan production system is an indigenous technology of Java, Indonesia adapted by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) under the Palayamanan Plus Project which constructs series of alternating deep sinks, pond refuges and raised beds where dryland crops are grown on raised beds while pond refuges and deep sinks serve as water catchment where rice and fish can be grown . This system was enhanced to promote crop diversification with intensive land use and simultaneous production of crops. The production system was schemed into a 3395 sqm area at PhilRice Central Experiment Station in year 2015. The models comprised mainly of rice, taro, vegetables and fish. Three models were developed and evaluated. Sorjan Model Area (SMA) 1 as Vegetable + Fish, SMA2 as Rice + Vegetable Fish and SMA3 as Vegetable + Taro + Fish. Different vegetable crops were grown on raised beds which were integrated with planting cucurbits on its margins while fish and rice was established on sinks and pond refuges. The annual net income earned from the three model areas for year 2015 was Php 83,432 for the whole production : Php73,800 from vegetables. Php8,000 from Taro, Php1,212 from rice and Php420 from fish. Crops raised were upland kangkong which netted 58.78 kg/year (10 cycles) weight harvested, pechay with 55 kg/year (10 cycle), lettuce with 61.72 kg/year (3 cycles) eggplant with 132.6 kg/year (2 cycles), finger pepper at 187 kg/year (2 cycles) corn at 79 kg/year (3 cycles) and tomato with 139 kg/year. Yield for rice obtained was 67.5 kg/year while 400 kg/year for taro. Income earned by the successful harvest of the vegetable crops compensated the expenses on the growth of rice and fish. Results show the potential income that can be earned through the system, how it promotes income stability through harvesting of crops sequentially, giving a regular cash flow from the diversified and high-value crops, and how it assures food security through the integration of various food source, vegetable, fish and rice. However, the returns of yields were not significantly high as it's just the pilot establishment of the production system.