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Biogenetic erosion and food security

By Montañosa Research and Development Center (MRDC)

First of two parts

Our today’s column is about the experiences of a Kankanaey community in Mountain Province with “modern farming” and its impact on biogenetic diversity and food security. It is a story of the people’s struggle against High Yielding Varieties (HYV) and modern cultivars that are intentionally bred to erode subsistence farming in tribal areas all in the name of agricultural liberalization and imperialist globalization.

The area

Dandanac is a sitio of Barangay Tamboan, one of the 14 barangays of Besao, Mountain Province. It is the remotest and largely underserved community in the municipality by the government. Located in the northern part, it can only be reached after 2-3 hours hike from the road end in Panabungen. It has a total population of 227 persons distributed among 53 households. The people belong to the indigenous Kankanaey tribe.

The area is characterized by steep slopes (more than 50%) of high sedimentary mountain with deep ravines. Elevations vary from 700 to 1800 meters above sea level. Cropping area is very limited and prone to erosion. Drainage is poor to excessive with moderate to high inherent fertility.

Agriculture is the main livelihood for 89% of the households with rice as the dominant crop. The average landholding per farming household is 0.23 and 0.16 hectare of rice fields and swidden farm (uma), respectively.

State of agriculture

The history of agriculture in the area started with the first wave of migrants from the lowlands. With sheer determination and through the application of traditional knowledge and skills, the first generation of farmers developed a highly diverse agricultural biodiversity, which they utilized as the principal input in agricultural production. They strengthened food resource bases in an attempt to sustain food security amid a varied and harsh environment. In the process, they were able to strengthen a people’s culture that is closely associated with food production.

It was through these great efforts that Dandanac gained the reputation as a “rice granary” during the post – World War II era. Based on oral accounts from elders, people from the neighboring settlements frequented the community to buy rice during lean months.

Traditionally, two rice cropping are practiced per year. All rice planted are classified as Traditional Varieties (TRV). Farming activities follow a synchronized cropping calendar under the strict supervision of the indigenous socio-political system called dap-ay or the council of elders.

High yielding varieties

The cropping cycle was completely altered and the whole agricultural biodiversity threatened when the so-called High Yielding Varieties (HYV) from the Marcos’Green Revolution era encroached into the rice production system. Fifteen years after its introduction, the HYV has already swamped the rice landscape in terms of number of users and area planted. Rice documentation conducted in 1996 shows that only two among the 18 varieties being used by farmers are classified as HYVs while the rest are TRVs. The situation had virtually changed eight years later when the result of another documentation revealed that the number of HYV increased to 11 while TRV declined by more than 50% with seven.

Almost half of the farmers said that they were enticed to plant HYV because it is high yielding and has the ability to grow in any given month. However, this has a high impact on the entire production system considering that whatever gains attributed to its introduction is totally wiped out by the effects it brings as shown by the following:

1. It narrowed the germplasm base while promoting genetic uniformity. Several traditional rice varieties are no longer planted and considered lost.

2. It weakened the synchronized cropping schedule. As a result, pest population increased and pest attack become prevalent resulting to 20% crop loss.

3. The ob-obbo, an indigenous cooperative labor system which serves as the venue for sharing of knowledge and exemplary practices among the farmers, has disintegrated.

4. Traditional practices on soil fertility enhancement and pest control mechanisms have been abandoned. Gradually sprouting in their stead is a technology alien to the community- the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

5. Other traditional and exemplary practices associated with rice production are now in the brink of extinction or actually in the process of being supplanted by government programs and interventions. This destroys the scientific basis of such practices as observed and developed by past generations that proved crucial to the survival of the rice terraces.

In the long run, the genetic erosion in rice has caused economic losses, hampering productivity and food security. Rice sufficiency level is now pegged at 9-10 months after the HYV yield started to decline. Therefore, after having been self-sufficient in rice some 20 years back, Dandanac is now dependent on rice imports to feed its population during lean months.

The depressing state of rice production now leads to broader social costs. In order to cope with food shortage, households now turned to cash generation to be able to buy staple food and other food products in the market. This prompted 68% of the labor force to leave the community after land preparation to work as seasonal laborers in construction sites elsewhere. Tending the rice fields is then delegated to the children, women, and elderly who are left behind.

Extinct varieties, species

Farmers who have long resisted the use of HYVs have argued that its introduction by the government is intended to contaminate or destroy their traditional rice varieties in an elaborated scheme to subsume them into the market economy for the benefit of transnational agro-companies. They likened this scheme to the government – introduced kuhol (Golden Apple Snail) which has plagued the rice crop. Traditionally, the paddy serves as habitat to aquatic life that provides 50% of protein needs of the farming household. When the kuhol was introduced, it drove two species of native snails (agudong and lisdeg) and one type of edible weed (saksakkong) into extinction aside from endangering other food resources endemic in the rice paddy. Based on observations and evaluations conducted by farmers, the population of aquatic life in the rice pond today is lower by 75% compared 15 years ago. Protein intake of the household from this source gradually declined thereby exerting pressure to the diverse marine life in the rivers, which has been decreasing in population due to over fishing.

The plot to modernize agricultural production does not end with the rice crop but includes traditional crops in the uma. Modern cultivars from breeding institutions are continuously introduced in the area with the local government units (LGU) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) serving as technology channels.

When the Central Cordillera Agricultural programme (CECAP), a special project of the DA funded by the European Union (EU), entered the area in 1994, it introduced several cultivars like banana, pineapple, peanuts, and citrus along with chemical inputs. The CECAP technologists bragged that these are high value crops (HVC) that would bring higher income to the household. When the farmers expressed signs of resistance, they were told that planting of the cultivars is attached to other projects like the irrigation system and that failure to comply will mean non-implementation of the latter. Thus, they planted these for compliance sake but did not apply the fertilizers unknown to CECAP. Only the bananas had thrived so far while the rest were long disposed of.

It did not stop here. Introduction of modern crops remains unabated. Last year, the DA- LGU distributed a new variety of corn, which it boasted as high-yielding. However, the organized farmers raised fears that this might be a strain or associated with genetically modified organisms like Bt Corn. Since a pioneering farmer was so insistent on trying, they prodded him to plant it in an area away from the uma in order to avoid cross –pollination with the traditional corn varieties. True enough, the new corn grew and flowered but it did not bear ears. #

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