Ilocos Region farmers a lucky lot

By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

Farmers in the four Ilocos Region provinces have a lot to thank for, as no area serves as catch basin for flood water flowing from surrounding areas. In the non-irrigated areas, this condition enables the farmers to produce rice once a year during the wet season.

In many low-lying in San Antonio, Nueva Ecija, rice farms are not cultivated during the wet season because flood water from neighboring towns and provinces normally come together in these areas. In many instances, flood water is at least a meter high for no less than a week and, hence, transplanted seedlings are already rotten when the water subsides.

Among the town’s 16 barangays, seven have been identified by a team of Filipino researchers as low-lying areas, which serve as catch basin of the neighboring municipalities, as well as Tarlac, Pampanga, and Zambales during rainy months and the typhoon season. Water depth reaches 1.5 meters, thereby making farmers despondent in producing rice.

Farmers stubbornly plant rice in these areas hoping against hope that their crop would survive any possible flood. In some instances, their crops barely survive flood water but their yields are low, as they are still to find a variety that may be able to survive submergence.

Indeed, submergence of rice by flood water has been a continuing problem to San Antonio farmers. And yet they have no recourse but to plant rice during the wet season, hoping that they would be able to harvest something for their own consumption. In the very low-lying areas, farmers have to wait for the dry season to produce a successful crop. In some areas, farmers have not planted anything in their farms during the last 10 yeas or so, as flood water only subsides at the middle of the dry season.

As Dr. Nenita Desamero of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) reported, “the low-lying rice areas… are not productive with any crop as they are fully submerged during seasons with heavy rains. In low-lying areas with poor drainage, flooding with heavy rain starts in June or July and extends to November, but may vary from September to October when typhoons and floods usually occur.

“With 2 to 3 days of heavy rain, or 3 to 4 days of light rain, fields remain submerged in August to October. With heavy rain and flood, water remains up to one month in the very low-lying areas. Sometimes, the very low-lying areas are submerged in December to January with very deep water, over a person’s height. The floodwater with mud, called banlig, is most damaging to the crop.”

According to Dr. Desamero, farmers in the low-lying areas generally produce one successful crop in the dry season with a yield of 4.0-4.5 tons a hectare (t/ha). Those who attempt to raise a wet season crop usually “transplant several times during the submergence-risk period, until a good crop is established in time with the recession of flood water… When the paddies are submerged early in the wet season, farmers wait until the water recedes and, as soon as the soil becomes visible, they transplant rice even if it is already a month late, resulting in a late harvest (in) November.”

However, the problem may soon be solved after all. Aware of the precarious conditions of farmers in flood-prone areas, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) scientists have bred a variety that can survive, grow, and develop even after 10 days of complete submergence in murky and cloudy water.

Tagged as IR64-Sub1, the new variety is a cross of IR64 and an Indian variety with the Sub1 gene, which makes the variety tolerant to submergence. Elsewhere two other varieties with the Sub1 gene have been also developed – Samba Mahsuri-Sub1 and Swarna-Sub1.

Starting in the 2007 wet season, IRRI and PhilRice initiated collaborative efforts to test IR64-Sub1 and three other submergence-tolerant cultivars at the PhilRice central experiment station in Maligaya, Munoz and in Barangay Papaya, San Antonio, both in Nueva Ecija.

“When we introduced the IR64-Sub1 variety in our first consultation meeting and consultation on 9 and 10 August 2007 in San Antonio, the farmers, municipal agricultural officer, and agricultural technicians got excited as they saw hope in turning their idle and less productive always-submerged paddies during rainy days and the typhoon season into productive paddies…” reported Dr. Desamero, PhilRice coordinator.

She added: “They became thrilled when they inquired whether the Sub1 variety can extend its submergence tolerance up to one month, and whether it could withstand drought as well. The farmers have high hopes for the introduced IR64-Sub1, as they hope to double their produce in times when they often harvest(ed) nothing because of heavy rain and typhoon-related flood damage. We hope that IR64 (with) the Sub1 gene will regain its lost glory in places where it fits best and has an advantage to be cultivated in submergence-prone and flash flood-prone areas.”

A farmer planted a hectare with IR64-Sub1 last dry season and produced 95 bags of 40 kilos each. All the seeds were sold at P30 a kilo to other farmers in San Antonio during the launching of a dissemination project on submergence-tolerant rice.

Indeed, the wet season crop of the submergence-tolerant rice varieties has become a show window of the new technology. Soon when the crop shall have been harvested and other farmers shall have witnessed the harvest of the innovators, they would undoubtedly begin to follow and plant several kilos of seeds at least to start with.

Ultimately, it is expected that the 11,058 hectares in San Antonio will again become productive rice lands.

(Readers may reach columnist at spablico@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/harvest-time/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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