Ratoon cropping then becomes a complementary rather than a competitive Each of the 'four notional technologies described is designed to
activity, as output can be generated with low levels of inputs and alleviate at least one system constraint without aggravating other
management. constraints or creating new ones. The utilization of very early
maturing varieties (VEVs) would allow the double cropping of rice with a
Agroclimatic requirements. All rice plants have a regenerative reduced degree of yield uncertainty due to adverse climatic conditions.
ability. However, experience with early maturing varieties indicates For land with low double cropping potential, the planting of a higher
that ratoon yields can be expected to be much lower than those of the yielding, medium to late maturing variety (LMV) can increase land
main crop. This is partly because 'ratoonability* has not been a productivity if new late maturing varieties can be found which achieve
criterion for varietal selection in IRRI breeding programs. Results significantly higher and more stable yield levels than the EMiVs. The
from cropping pattern trials indicate that the average yields of IR-36 third notional technology suggested was the utilization of an early
ratoon approximate one-sixth of the main crop yield (Component maturing photoperiod sbnsitive variety (PSV) as a complement to dry
Technology Research Staff, 1979).4 While ratoon cropping is seeded crop establishment. Such a variety would contribute to the
biologically feasible and fits the prevalent climatic pattern in Iloilo alleviation of some of the problems plaguing farmers who have tried DSR.
well, breeding work will have to be done to obtain varieties which would Lastly, the utilization of rice regenerative ability through the deincrease the benefits of ratoon technology. velopment of a vigorous ratooning variety (RAV) was suggested as a means
of increasing rice production with a small investment in areas where
Acceptability to farmers. The farmers participating in this study double rice cropping is Infeasible due to high drought probabilities or
were questioned as to their preference between rice varieties currently other constraints.
available and a proposed new variety which would produce about one-third
the yield of the new varieties they were using. All of the farmers had
previous experience with ratoon, though few had done it intentionally. A TECHNOLOGY CHECKLIST
Their word for ratoon translated roughly as *volunteer rice*. During
years in which there was substantial rainfall late in the rice-growing As a conclusion to this paper, a checklist of the possible effects
season, some newly harvested rice plants would regenerate. In most on the farm system of a new technology is presented (Table 1). Each
years, farmers did not consider the ratoon rice to be worth harvesting, existing and'notional technology is rated in terms of what changes in
as the yields were extremely low. In years when it was harvested, the the farm system are necessary in order to facilitate the adoption of the
largest share went to the hired harvest labor. technology and what likely effects the successful implementation of each
technology would have on the farm system in question.
When presented with the idea of ratooning the new varieties with
the expectation of a better yield, farmers responded positively. Of the Notional and existing technologies possess different advantages and
twelve farmers interviewed, ten stated that they would favor the disadvantages in terms of their adaptability to rainfed farming systems.
adoption of a ratoon variety rather than risking the planting of two Before technology development should take place, a ranking of techcrops of the currently available new varieties. One of the farmers nologies would be desirable so that researchers could focus on inventing
stated that he would try to plan two rice crops if the onset of the wet the better ones. Therefore, each technology was assigned a numerical
season was very early, and plant a ratoon variety otherwise. The other rating according to whether it possessed favorable, neutral or
farmer indicated that he could not predict his response to a ration unfavorable effects when compared to traditional technology for each of
variety until he had had first-hand experience with it. the evaluation criteria. The summation of positive, negative and zero
ratings provided an overall desirability index for each technology
During the three previous cropping seasons in the Iloilo area (Table 2).
(1976-79), an average of over 70 percent of the rainfed lowland was
planted to either rice-upland crop or rice-fallow patterns. Ratoon All of the evaluation criteria were weighted equally. It is
cropping could conceivably increase the productivity of nearly all of likely, however, that the relative weights of each criterion would vary
this land, provided that ratoon yields are sufficiently high to warrant from farm to farm depending upon such individual characteristics as
the expenditure of labor for harvest. land, labor and capital availability and risk preferences. Though
different weights would change the individual scores for each technology, there is sufficient difference in the scores obtained by most of
them that the ordinal rankings would still be likely to hold.
4No cash inputs (such as fertilizer or pesticides) were added to According to the criteria used in technology evaluation, all of the
the ratoon crop, which would in part explain low yield figures. notional technologies would be superior to any of the existing new
technologies. However, not all of the notional technologies would be
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