through conservation farming
ND Ganotisi, LG Inocencio, MR Gappi, AC Aguinaldo
Without appropriate soil conservation, upland soils become prone to erosion and eventually become less fertile as production intensifies resulting in unsustainable production. The Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center developed a scheme for the uplands called Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT).
Its main objectives are not only to make upland farming sustainable, but also provide food for the farm family and the upland community as a whole (Watson 1995). The adaptability of some of the SALT technologies, such as terracing, planting hedgerows and cover crops and mulching, to manage water in the upland for rice production, and crop rotation and intercropping for better land resource use and management, are assessed for enhanced production of rice and rice-based crops in the uplands of Apayao.
Findings/Highlights:
Baselining
• Baseline information collection through farmer interviews with structured questionnaires in 2011 WS covered indigenous crop production practices and socioeconomic traits of the upland rice farmers in Brgy. Swan, Pudtol, Apayao. The farmers usually prepared their land by clearing and burning the areas from April to May. In May to June, they direct seeded by dibbling the rice variety Palawan at 7-8 seeds per hill and at a distance of 30cm x 30cm between rows and hills. The majority of the farmers formed manual weeding, done 30 and 60 DAS, while few farmers used chemical control. They used Rakem tool in harvesting upland rice.
• A major farmers’ practice was intercropping pineapple, planted 1.5m to 2.0m between rows and 0.50m between hills in June, 30 DAS of upland rice. Other farmers also planted gabi after harvesting rice.
Banana used to be the major source of income in the past 10 years,
but because of the bunchy top disease, the farmers stopped planting them, but they still maintained the remaining standing banana plants as source of additional food and income.
• On the average, 40% of the farmers’ annual income of PhP 46,495, which is very low, was from agricultural source. The major sources of income were from banana, pineapple, and livestock such as swine, which was used to pay the labor hired during clearing operations.
Higher source of income were from non-agricultural sources (60%) such as employment of the household members and remittances from OFW family members. The average area cultivated and owned by upland farmers was 7,052m2, with yield ranging from 0.33 to 2.5mtha-1.
Adaptation of conservation farming techniques for upland rice
• Linkage and support from LGU-Pudtol, Apayao partners were established, and the 10ha experimental site in Barangay Swan with coordinates North- 18.110502, East- 121.212246 and elevation of 53m above sea level was validated. It was a newly slash-and-burned- opened area. Soil samples were gathered for analysis.
• With the use of A-frame (Figure 38), 16 contour lines, which served as guide in making bunds for terracing, were determined from an area of 2,100m2. The study area was planted with two upland rice varieties, NSIC Rc192 and NSIC Rc9, and a traditional variety Palawan. The seeds, at a rate of 50kgha-1, were dibbled in rows 30cm apart, on July 1, 2011.
• Napier grass was planted as hedgerow along the contour lines at a distance of 20cm between hills and a double row at 50cm for every contour line to manage soil erosion and eventually serves as forage crop and feed for large ruminants raised by the farmers in the locality.
The grass was planted in August when enough rainfall provides sufficient soil moisture to sustain its growth. The 90cm bunds for terracing were constructed starting four months after planting the grass in the upper portion of the hedgerows.
• The actual yield harvested for rice averaged 0.48mtha-1, which was low due to water stress during vegetative to booting stage.
Cropping system establishment
• Cropping system models, termed intervention models, and farmer’s practice set-up were established and compared. The intervention model has an area of 1,214m2, while the farmers practice was 816m2, both established after clearing and burning the site (Table 30). For the intervention model (Figure 39), five contour lines using a 7m water- hose level were determined to serve as hedgerows. In relatively flat area with 2% slope, pigeon pea was planted as hedgerows, 0.50m
between hills in double rows 75cm apart along the three alternate contour lines. In a steeper area with 10-15% slope, Gliricidia sepium was planted as hedgerow. The hedgerows serve as soil erosion control and source of green manure. The other hedgerows planted along the contour were pineapple suckers at 0.50m between hills, ginger rhizomes planted 0.20m between hills in a single row, cassava and gabi to serve as source of additional income besides the rice variety, NSIC Rc192, dibbled at 30cm x 30cm distance. On the the other hand, the farmer’s practice consisted of the traditional variety Palawan, intercropped with pineapple suckers space planted at 0.5m between hills x 2.0m between rows.
• Crop maintenance: Fertilizer application was delayed due to the absence of rain. The first fertilizer application for rice was 45 DAS with 14-14-14 at 30-30-30 kg NPK per hectare, followed by second application 82 DAS with 46-0-0 (urea) at 30kg N per hectare. At 30 DAS, massive manual weeding was done to manage the weeds, which were predominated by broad leaves and grasses followed by spot weeding of newly emerged weeds.
• At early hard dough stage, rice bug infestation was observed with 36% incidence in NSIC Rc192 and 5% in Palawan. Comparable grain yield between NSIC Rc192 (0.51mtha-1) and Palawan (0.52mtha-1) was obtained. The rice bug damage at grain filling resulted in low yield for both varieties. Water stress, which occurred 60 days after crop establishment, prolonged the vegetative growth which delayed harvesting.
Table 30. Date of planting and amount of planting materials used at the intervention model and farmers’ practice. WS 2011
Crop Date of Planting Amount of Materials Used Intervention Model
Rice June 30, 2011 5kg
Pigeon Pea June 23, 2011 900 seedlings
Cassava June 23, 2011 60 cuttings
Pineapple July 7, 2011 700 suckers
Gabi Sept. 8, 201 200 tubers
Ginger Sept. 23, 2011 4kg
Farmers’ Practice
Rice June 30, 2011 6.3kg
Pineapple July 7, 2011 600 suckers
A B
Figure 38. Contouring using A-frame (A). Bund construction (B)
Figure 39. Intervention model: Rice variety NSIC Rc192 along the contour lines planted with cassava, pigeon pea, gabi and pineapple as hedgerows, 2011 WS.
V. Development of PalayCheck® System for Rainfed, Upland, Saline, and Submergence-prone Ecosystems
CA Asis Jr.
The rainfed lowland, upland, saline, and submergence-prone environments are bio-physically challenged and considered as marginal rice production areas. Water scarcity is one major problem in the rainfed lowland, while the upland, on top of water supply limitation, is characterized by inherent physico-chemical problems such as very low soil fertility, soil acidity, soil erosion, and biotic stresses. Salt intrusion and flash flooding in low-lying rice paddies contribute significantly in the reduction or unavailability of arable lands.
PalayCheck® system will be developed by integrating the technologies developed for the different crop production components and the best practices in the target rice environment. The system will serve as a tool and guide in
targeting increased and sustained rice production in the marginal areas, while maintaining the integrity of the environment.