Pangasinan’s pride in Agricultural Research
By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

 

DR. MADONNA Carbon Casimero is a weed scientist who leads PhilRice’s program for unfavorable environment and has distinguished herself in integrating farming practices that lead to improved productivity of rice-based farmers.

Only   over 40 years old, she started working at PhilRice 13 years ago as a science research specialist but is now one of the Institute’s tough middle level managers. She obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in agronomy from UP Los Baños through a UPLB-Virginia Tech joint program. She also finished the master’s and bachelor’s degrees in agronomy at UPLB.

She has led in the development and promotion of the Palayamanan concept, which encourages rice-based farmers to plant other crops in addition to rice, most especially vegetables, and raise livestock to increase their productivity and income. This concept has been proven successful in many parts of the country and is now being promoted in the ARMM. Even the army has adopted Palayamanan to combat insurgency.

Casimero also advocates the agro-ecological approach of managing weeds, which reduce costs but would not affect weed control efficacy and yields. This approach focuses on cultural management practices, like land preparation and water management, with a minimum application of chemical weed killers (herbicides). This strategy advocates a balance in the ecosystem since weeds also play a role in the conservation of beneficial insects.

In Dingle, Iloilo, where the Echinochloa weed species has developed resistance to herbicides, farmers who adopted this approach are ever thankful to Casimero, as their yields started to increase. In fact, her research paper with Leilanie Juliano, which reported for the first time the development of herbicide resistance in Echinochloa species, won the best paper award during the recent scientific meeting of the Weed Science Society of the Philippines (WSSP).

Her studies also focused on the development of technologies that reduce herbicide use in rice-onion farming systems and reduce the drudgery of handweeding, which is usually done by women and children.

She also initiated the participatory approach to technology development and adaptation to integrate rice-based farming practices. In this approach, the farmers are actively involved in the conduct of farm trials together with extension workers. This approach respects farmers’ capability in making decisions based on their analysis of crop situations and often leads to new discoveries related to the crop.

During field days at the end of the season, farmer-partners relate their experiences and discoveries to other farmers.

Likewise, she has developed a long term strategy to control purple nut sedge (barsanga) in lowland rice fields by using cultural management practices like land preparation during the period between the wet season rice and upland crops, combined with minimum herbicide use.

Among the numerous awards received by Casimero are the TOWNS (Ten Oustanding Women in the Nation’s Service), Marcos R. Vega Memorial Award in Weed Science (the highest award given by the WSSP), best research paper award during the 18th Asia Pacific Weed Science Society conference in Beijing, China in 2001, best paper in weed science in a scientific meeting of the Pest Management Council of the Philippines, and awards from PhilRice.

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