Traditionally, rice hulls, leavings from the milling of rice, are left to rot in small hills at the back of rice mills. There are 10 stationary rice mills in Buenavista and 2,041.44 hectares of lands devoted to rice production. Rice hulls are treated as waste without any productive use. After a core group from Buenavista has participated in training on composting methods this perspective has changed. Agricultural wastes like rice hulls are a resource that can be transformed into a main ingredient for compost.

At the municipal nursery in Barangay Supang, a carbonizer stands at one corner in the midst of a mound of rice hulls collected by the municipal dump truck from the rice mills in Buenavista. Approximately 6 cubic meters of rice hulls are collected every day. The carbonized rice hulls are to be mixed with rice bran, manure, garden soil, fresh tuba (coconut wine) and lime from the local mines. There are 5 lime mining companies in Buenavista which supply lime to the Provinces in the region. Since the quality of the compost is of primary importance, garden soil used for mixing is taken from bamboo grooves that abound in the area. Every week about 3 tons of fortified compost are produced. The product is then used as soil conditioners for farms in the municipality. What has been taken from the soil is returned to the soil. The Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO) is engaged in a rice rehabilitation project involving 50 hectares of rice lands. One fourth hectare of rice land requires 10 bags of compost and 1 ton of agricultural lime.

On August 2006, the MAO will launch a banana growing program for ethnic communities in Buenavista. One thousand one hundred (1,100) banana shoots shall be planted on soil treated with the carbonized rice hull compost. The plants will then be looked after by the ethnic groups within a system patterned after their own mores of ownership. Somehow, banana growing which requires little nurturing, fits with the nomadic way of life of the ethnic communities.