The study aimed to ascertain the current perceptions and practices of local rice farmers in the municipality of Diplahan, Zamboanga Sibugay. It was also conducted in order to know the issues and concerns of farmers by looking into their management practices that include seed and seedling transplanting, fertilizer application, pesticide application, tillage and non-tillage cultivation. The research was carried out in ten barangays in the said municipality. Personal interviews (PI) were conducted with 150 local farmers in the study to collect information for perceptions and practices using a guide questionnaire that was translated into Cebuano to facilitate a better understanding among the farmers. The study results showed that rice production in Diplahan has fallen below the minimum required yield to achieve rice self-sufficiency due to the numerous issues regarding rice crop management in both irrigated and non-irrigated farmlands. The study found that farmers continued to rely on existing local knowledge gained from families, experience, and co-farmers, despite there are already existing programs and seminars on the proper farm management conducted by the Department of Agriculture. Many of them believed merely on luck. Moreover, more appropriate farming practices were not implemented due to poverty and other economic issues. Lastly, problems in rice crop management such as nutrient application, pest recognition, pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides applications by local farmers emerge in the study.

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