Farming Practices at the Edge of the World

When I was an undergraduate student of UPCA (now UPLB) many years ago, I learned that traditional farming had to go and modern farming practices should be in.  Us agriculture students in those days took that teaching hook, line, and sinker.  Why not?  We were taught by the best agricultural scientists in Southeast Asia and we were studying in the premier agricultural college in the region.  Still, today, I believe we still  have much to learn from the traditional farming practices in Itbayat, Batanes, the last Philippine town to the north, invariably referred to by Philippine media  as the edge of the world.  Itbayat agriculture, I believe, is probably more sustainable than what is commonly taught today in most agricultural schools in the country.  After all, it has survived hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years.    

In the past, kaingin used to be practiced in Itbayat, but apparently farmers there have stopped or at least minimized this practice now.  Learned agriculturists would find the traditional farming practices on the island strange, if not out of this world.  But it’s probably more scientific than most agriculture graduates know.  Well, somebody from the UPLB-CA has to test that hypothesis. 

In Itbayat, the farming cycle follows this crop rotation schedule: rice-corn-yam-kamote-fallow for at least three years, then back to rice, etc.

Let me explain in detail the entire farming process on the island.  In the olden days, when kaingin was still practiced, farmers would clear a specific patch of land, usually 50m x 50m, on the average.  Bushes and shrubs would be cut and cleared, and trees decrowned or cut down.  When the leaves dry, they’re burned, so the area is devoid of weeds and ready for planting. 

Usually, the first crop is upland rice.  There’s not much land preparation because plowing isn’t practiced.  Farmers, using the simple hoe, cut a canal-like “farrow” on the land at right angle with the slope of the land so that when it rains soil will not erode.  Rice seeds are sown in these “canals” and covered with soil using one’s feet so that rice birds will not eat them. 

About a week before the rice is ready for harvest, corn is planted.  Rice straws are usually left  standing until farmers uproot them during weeding time and are left lying on the ground to serve as mulch.  Farmers, of course, didn’t know this was mulching.  All they knew was that the rice straws would prevent weeds from growing too fast as well as prevent the soil from drying up too quickly.  When the corn is ready for harvesting as green corn, yam or ubi, tugi, and gabi are planted.  When the corn is harvested, farmers would simply bend the corn stalk to serve as trellis for the growing yam vines.  There are a couple of reasons for this practice: one, the yam vines will not touch the soil, which is very hot, to avoid plant wilting; and, second, these trellises together with the yam vines protect the soil from the elements.  The basic principle is, don’t expose the soil to the elements so that it will not be damaged by erosion or cracking, and keep its fertility as well.

When yam is ready for harvest, kamote would be planted.  Of course, the kamote vines would crawl on the ground and its healthy leaves would cover the soil completely.  As the kamote plants grow, farmers normally plant pineapples and even bananas, as well.  Farmers harvest kamote on staggered basis – that is, they get only the tubers they need for food -- over a period of at most one year.  During this time, seedlings of small trees, locally called “anariong” and “vinwa,” would be left to grow bigger (both species, by the way, have  soil fertilization properties).  The kamote plants are not uprooted but simply left for as long as they survive the growing other plants and trees.  As this process proceeds, however, farmers continue to harvest kamote tubers for as long as there are tubers to harvest.

Normally, the farm land is left to fallow for about three to five years.   It's during this period that the farm patch becomes usually brushland or even grassland but would still be cleared for farming three to five years down the road.  Meantime, other patches of farms which have been left to fallow in the last three to five years would be cleared for another farming cycle, starting with clearing and planting of rice, corn, yam, and kamote.  Clearing the land during succeeding farming periods requires the use of the hoe to scrape grass from the soil.  Like I said, plowing isn't practiced in Itbayat.

This particular farming tradition is practiced only in Itbayat.  On Batan and Sabtang islands, farming practices there are different because farmers plow the land and uproot trees after a period of fallow. 

In the 1950s, someone, actually a second-degree uncle of ours, who has just came out of the Seminary and refused to be ordained as priest, came home to Itbayat and introduced garlic as cash crop.   (I don't know if in the Seminary they learned agriculture in those days.)  As a result, the traditional pattern of farming in Itbayat changed accordingly so that the first crop to be planted was garlic, then rice, then corn, etc.  Garlic did not have to be grown in kaingin land.  In fact, the grassland was good enough.  In any case, grassland in Itbayat is fertile, too.  Hence, people began cultivating graze lands for garlic production.  Since garlic needed more fertile soil to grow bigger, some farmers couldn’t resist kaingin farming, but this soon became less practiced as they were also running out of virgin forests to cultivate. Besides, graze land soil in Itbayat is fertile as well.

Itbayat farmers do not use chemical fertilizers and pesticides.  The soil remains fertile as a result of the farming cycle, and insect control is through natural bio-control as both friendly insects and pests are  naturally present on the farm.   In other words, "friendly insects" were not  introduced by the farmers.  These insects were natural inhabitants that have been there even before the farmers became farmers.  The only “pests” that could not be easily controlled are the rice birds, locally called "tiyak" (maya in Tagalog) that would picnic on mature rice grains awaiting harvesting.  The farmers of Itbayat, though, have a way of controlling these birds ... well, only partially successful, I might say.  But that's another story all together.   

Anyway, agriculture in Itbayat is absolutely sustainable.  All families in Itbayat have farms of their own and they produce all they need.  So commercial agriculture doesn't exist on the island. since people don't buy food (they produce their own food consumption).  In the case of garlic, however, one or two farmers who have some funds would usually buy the garlic production of other farmers and  transport such produce in bulk to Manila where it is marketed either on wholesale or retail basis.  Garlic bulbs produced in Itbayat (and the whole of Batanes) are large, almost like those we import from Taiwan, but have stronger garlic taste.

Come to think of it.  Agritorusim could flourish in Itbayat, Batanes.  Just a thought.

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Hans Rosling and the magic washing machine | Video on TED.com

Hans Rosling and the magic washing machine | Video on TED.com

DEVC 263 Students of UPOU: View this presentation. Students of environmental communication must also view this presentation. Swedish Economist Hans Rosling, indeed, has been known for his dramatic and inspired explanation of how technologies work and their effects on our environment. This is one interesting way of understanding the implications of using the washing machine in today's world where the rich are telling the poor what to do to improve the environment they're living in. As Hans Rosling says, the rich should stop telling the poor how to save energy until they (the rich) only use the same amount of energy as the poor do. Cheers.

Bombarded With Mixed Scenarios in Life

Profundity of a Nine-Year Old

The other night, my sis-in-law, Ruby, texted Jegs and related a very brief incident between her and daughter, Danyelle, while they were in bed watching the news and waiting to go to sleep.  Ruby was commenting on the tsunami scenes in Japan being flashed on television when she asked rhetorically, “Is this now the end of the world?”

In a few seconds, from the corner of her eye, she saw her daughter, Nyelle, unobstrusively wiping tears from her eyes.  She asked her, “Bakit, Nyelle?  Do you have a problem?”  Nyelle didn’t say a word.  She just continued looking at the TV screen.  Then, after a few moments, her Mommy said, “Sige, hindi ako matutulog ngayong gabi kung mayroon kang secret na hindi sinasabi sa akin.”

Whereupon, Nyelle looked at her Mom and said, “natatakot ako sa end of the world.”

When Jegs read me the text from Ruby, I simply couldn’t comment for a few seconds.  Then I managed to say, “Wow, what profundity.” 

What crossed my mind was that when she said she was afraid of the end of the world, she probably was thinking that when the “end of the world” happens, as in zero hour, she’d only be nine years old, alone, probably looking around and seeing everybody and everything gone.  And that she would be alone in the middle of a vast nowhere, not knowing what to do or where to go.  Most of all, she would have lost her Mom and everybody else she loves that’s why she was all alone.  The ultimate clincher will be in the mind of this nine-year old: how would she survive being alone in a world that has ended? 

                                     Below, Nyelle with her Mom, Ruby (left), and Lola Lita (right).

One might ask another profound question: “Is this the kind of world that I shall be leaving my child behind in?”  Look at what we’re all doing to our only planet.  When we’re done, what’s going to be left of it for our children?  When your child who’s just born today shall be in her prime, she’ll most likely be living in a vastly different planet.  Will she survive?  Nine years from now, will she whisper to your ears, “natatakot ako sa end of the world?”  By then, the “end of the world” would probably be much closer to home than it now is.  What would be your response to your nine-year old?  How do you think would you feel?

Or has not the rhetoric hit you yet?

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Calling UPLB Alumni

Have you visited the UPLB Alumni Center lately?  I know Dr. Mimi Ocampo, UPLB’s hyper alumni head, has told me a couple of weeks ago that I should visit the Alumni Center as it was being renovated.  The Alumni center was UPOU’s headquarters during its first two years of existence and I used to frequent the place, but when the UPOU transferred to its current Headquarters I haven’t been able to visit the place again.

Anyway, Doc Mimi is right.  The Alumni Center looks beautiful these days.  It’s sporting a new look, it even has a new, automatically pressurized 1,000-gallon water tank.  On the ground floor, which is what’s on the level of the road, it has two halls and the offices of the Alumni Center.  On the lower level floor are additional offices which could be rented out, Mimi tells me.  College-based alumni organizations at UPLB could hold their offices there. 

                                              Picture below shows new facade of the Alumni Center.

For a long time now, the UPLB Alumni and different college-based alumni organizations at UPLB have had no Center to be proud of.  Well, the UPLB Alumni Center is one we can proudly call our Center.  Do visit it one of these days.  It sits right across from the UPLB Health Services Hospital, along the road to the College of Forestry.  It’s being landscaped now, but by the time you are able to visit it shall be an adorable place for souvenir photo-ops for Alumni.

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Watch Out for the UPOU Podcasters

Last Saturday, UPOU’s Multimedia Center headed by Dr. Dinah Nadera, organized a seminar-workshop on audio podcasting.  The resource person was Ms. Elyss Punsalan, one of very few podcasters  who are sort of specializing in fiction in the Philippines today.  The seminar-workshop introduced us to another approach in delivering our course content at UPOU.  Now, we’ve got a good idea as to how we could, for example, provide some audio component to our course guides or even perhaps course content.

We’re not yet into video podcasting, but some were already asking if we could go on-cam.  Fine idea, indeed.  For me at the moment, though, audio podcasting is just fine.  I think that I might be a bit more effective being heard than seen.  Not that I have no confidence in how I look, it’s just that a viedo of myself might be distracting.  Tsk tsk tsk.

                                  Participants in the Audio Podcasting Seminar-Workshop at NCC.

Anyway, there’ll be another session at the UPOU Headquarters.  When?  Still don’t know.  Depends on the schedules at the HQ, I guess.  There are so many things going on that it has become difficult to schedule events on short notice.  We’ll get you informed, though.

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Doctoral Learning Experience: A Point of View

Without my superiors’ knowledge and approval, I, on my own, prepared a statement that I would want to share with students of the Doctor of Communication Program at UPOU when we undertake the UPOU Doctoral Orientation Program on 19-20 May 2011 at the UPOU Headquarters in Los Baños.  This is my own personal point of view and doesn’t necessarily reflect the thinking of my colleagues at the UPOU.   Hence, take it with a grain of salt, so to speak.

If I’ll be unable to read it during that orientation program, at least it shall have appeared in this blog.  So here goes.

In the realm of learning, there are various points of view or differences of opinion.  I don’t know which one is right or wrong.  To me, it’s a matter of philosophical inclination.  Unfortunately, this philosophical inclination almost always influences one’s view of how learning shall occur.  It becomes an important bone of contention especially for those who might still be in the process of deciding or developing their own philosophical orientation to learning.

Perhaps one of the more common errors in the process of ascribing meaning to the learning experience is that learning from elementary to graduate school is a similar process, following similar principles and procedures.  There may be reasons for this presumption, but there’s a wide latitude of discrepancy in terms of purpose and procedure of learning from elementary to high school to college to graduate school.  For example, basic education might  need completely structured guidance or supervision; collegiate education may be enhanced through guided mentoring; while graduate education, particularly doctoral education, might require emphasis on independent learning.  These are levels of independence in learning, depending perhaps partially on one’s learning style, or the collectivity of one’s interests, and levels of motivation and need for achievement.

When one is going through the process of earning a doctorate degree, one is largely on his/her own.  Of course, this is more philosophical than otherwise but the simple reason behind this is that at such level as graduate education one has fully established one’s learning habits and such wouldn’t change anymore.  It is said that learning ought to be a pleasant experience, and for it to be pleasant experience it should be according to one’s own established learning processes where one is most comfortable in.  This differs from individual to individual, therefore the need to focus on individualized and independent learning experiences.  To put it simply, to each his own.

Individuals who prefer to learn together with others would ultimately find ways to link up and learn together, while individuals who prefer to learn alone would eventually do their thing alone.  One should not be forced to work with others if one isn’t inclined to do so. 

The important point in all this is that the responsibility to learn rests completely with the learner, not the professor.  How one learns is one’s own problem, not anybody else’s.  However, one has the full option of validating what he/she might have considered to have understood with anyone he/she has confidence in.  This is not necessarily always the professor of the course. 

Many times, we validate what we encounter with some one we have confidence in, such as a trusted classmate, a friend, or even other professors.  That’s what we do.  We do not necessarily run to the professor all the time.  The professor, on the other hand, provides the necessary resources, such as reading materials and perhaps time structure to study content, and other procedural matters that would enhance one’s own personal learning experience.  More by choice than by force of a rule, the professor may be nice and amiable or difficult to deal with.  That’s what personal differences are all about.  Still, the learner himself has the option of taking advantage of this environment of learning resources.  He/ she can always choose to do things on his/her own. 

In other words, if you’re not sure about what you’ve come up with you may decide to validate it with others, including your professor.  Do not, however, expect that your professor will always automatically do the validation for you.  You seek it when you think you need it based on your own evaluation of your validation experience.  What your professor can do is to provide you with various options that would lead to the same point so that you might be able to decide for yourself which option you would take.

You need to know if what you think is the correct one?  Well, is there a one single right one or correct one to begin with?  Is our knowledge not a synthesis of collective wisdom?  This is exactly why learning is always a continuing effort.  It never stops.

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Deb Roy: The birth of a word | Video on TED.com

Deb Roy: The birth of a word | Video on TED.com

This is where communication research is today. How close or far are we from our own current communication environment? Students of UPOU's DComm Program should think about this state of the art in communication research. Lex Librero

Phoenix Palm in Itbayat, Batanes

An expensive palm called Phoenix loureiroi var. loureiroi (previously known as Phoenix hanceana var. philippinensis), is endogenous to Batanes, particularly on the islands of Itbayat and Sabtang.  It’s locally known as voyavoy, the raw material in the making of what locals call “vakul” in Ivatan or “suhot” in Itbayat.  This “vakul” or “suhot” is a protective gear against rains and the scorching heat of direct sunlight.  It warms the wearer during cold rainy days, and cools one in summer.  It also serves as bed under the shade of a tree for a small child sleeping while his/her mother is busy weeding the field some meters away.

Only the elders still use the “vakul” or “suhot.”  The younger generation of Ivatans don’t wear this anymore.  However, Ivatans continue to weave miniaturized sizes of “vakul” or “suhot” for sale as souvenir items to tourists. 

Of course, the leaves of voyavoy need to be processed to be used in making “vakul” or “suhot”.  Processing is simply shredding the leaves into thin strips, using hand-made manual shredder like the gadget used to remove fish scales in the wet markets of Luzon.  This voyavoy shredder, however, is smaller and with thinner but much more pointed  pins.  Anyway, when the voyavoy leaves have been shredded thin, they are dried under the sun. 

The size of the “vakul” or “suhot” fits the length of a person’s torso, from head to buttocks.  The portions of the shredded leaves that tend to obstruct the view of the wearer are trimmed, and would look like bangs of hair on the fore head.

A less important use of voyavoy in Itbayat is that it’s used as a broom indoors.  It’s very effective in sweeping dust, even more effective than “walis tambo” because of its shredded sturdy leaves, which do not, by the way, break off from the main midrib no matter how hard you might swing it on the floor.

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The modern use of voyavoy is as an ornamental plant, said to be one of the most expensive palms.  There are a few plants on the grounds of the UP Open University.  These plants came from seeds that I gathered from Itbayat in 2006.  Those planted around the UPOU rotunda are now bearing fruits, which, by the way, are edible like date palm fruits.  The fruit of voyavoy is much smaller and its flesh thinner compared to date palm fruits.  Some more plants are available at Panyesanan, the farm-resort of my brother in Lipa City.

No one has thought of it yet, but perhaps the voyavoy leaves could be tested for appropriateness as raw material in the manufacture of paper money.  It’s fibrous and very durable.

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The voyavoy plant, however, is an endangered species.  This was originally observed by William Gruezo and Edwino Fernando, both scientists of UPLB, in a scientific paper published in 1985.  Natives of Itbayat have observed in recent years that the voyavoy plant population in Itbayat has actually decreased significantly, most likely by as much as 50%, and so there’s need to conserve, perhaps even propagate, this plant.  In 2003, participants in a seminar-workshop in Basco titled “Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Voyavoy in Batanes Island,” which was sponsored by the Philippine National Museum in cooperation with the National Commission on Indigenous People, adopted voyavoy as a flagship species for conservation.  Not much, if at all, happened after that, though.

In early 2010, in an informal meeting with Batanes Governor Vicente Gato and Provincial Board Member Rocky Abad, at my brother’s farm-resort in Lipa City, I described to these two gentlemen my idea of a voyavoy sanctuary in Itbayat.   Board Member Rocky Abad got so interested in the idea, he asked me to send him a copy of my concept paper.  I did send him a copy a week later, but I don’t know the status of the proposed voyavoy sanctuary.  Anyway, this proposal dovetails well with the resolution of the seminar-workshop in 2003.

Any conservation suggestions for voyavoy in Itbayat is welcomed by Governor Gato, he being a native of Itbayat.

My idea of a voyavoy sanctuary is something like 5-10 hectares stretching from the old seaport of Chinapoliran to Varanga, the new seaport constructed in 2006.  If a larger sanctuary is needed, then the entire area surrounding the airport in Itbayat could be declared Voyavoy Sanctuary, as well.  That’s a good place for the sanctuary.  A third place would be the slopes of Mt. Riposed.  Actually, the whole island of Itbayat ought to be a sanctuary for voyavoy.

Then, there should be a program of voyavoy propagation and massive planting.  The peripheral areas of all other grassland and cogonland areas in Itbayat should be sites for voyavoy propagation, even as reforestation should be undertaken in Mt. Karuboban and other areas that used to be forest areas on the island.

Then, while still on Itbayat Island, there ought to be at least one more scientific exploration of the island to identify the different species of the island's flora and fauna that have not been identified until today.  There  are a lot more that still need to be scientifically identified on the island.  I’d certainly love to be part of such scientific exploration to help provide the correct local names of species.  Obviously, I wouldn’t remember all the local names of whatever species that might be identified, but I could provide a good bridge between the scientific explorers and the locals to enhance the entire scientific exploration undertaking.  That, of course, is, for the moment, a wish.   

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Second Take on Anniversary Celebrations

Symposium on Green Tourism at UPLBCA’s AgriPark

Yesterday, I attended a symposium on green tourism at the UPLB-CA Agripark.  This symposium was part of the week-long celebrations for the Founding Anniversary of the UPCA (now the UPLB).  The symposium speaker was a good friend, Prof. Roberto Cereno (Robbie to friends), today’s acknowledged eco-tourism expert of UPLB.  He spoke on a relatively new concept called Green Tourism.

Admittedly, tourism is today’s world’s main employer because 10% of world employment is in tourism, Robbie says.  Well, 75M jobs are directly related and 210M indirectly related to tourism simply means substantial, however one looks at it.

In the Philippines, Robbie says, tourism in the past leaned heavily on the 5S of tourism: sun, sand, sea, sex, and San Miguel.  When former Senator Dick Gordon served as Tourism Secretary in the beginning of the 2000 decade, WOW Philippines became the slogan of tourism and Philippine Tourism was made to heavily lean on the 5Fs of tourism: forests, farms, fishes, food, and festivals.  In other words, these became the tourist attractions of the Philippines, capitalizing on the virgin forests of Palawan and other places (really, not many places anymore), the Banawe Rice Terraces, butanding, dolphins, and coral reefs, Filipino dishes, and the endless festival celebrations.

Traditional tourism became a collection of sub-tourism themes, hence, we now have medical tourism, spa and wellness tourism, eco-tourism, science tourism, and even voluntourism (a concept where tourists visit a country and volunteer to do some work towards preservation of culture, etc.  Now, we’re into Green Tourism.

My friend Robbie went through the pains of conceptualizing what Green Tourism is.  He says that any green tourism program must highlight the significance of visitor enjoyment, economic benefits accruing to community people, promote education and awareness of environmental concerns, which all lead towards heritage conservation, one that focuses on the preservation of our cultural heritage.

To achieve these, Robbie told his audience, a Green Tourism program must have the following components: attraction (whether natural like Mt. Makiling or man-made like Enchanted Kingdom), activities (like mountain trekking or birding – which used to be known as bird-watching), accommodations (plenty of hotels and inns, including home stays, and B&Bs), amenities (communication connectivity), and access (very good transportation system).

A tourism sector that’s becoming more significant is what Robbie calls the “week-end get away” sector or market, comprised on the young professionals we call today as yuppies and the DINKYs.  This acronym refers to the “double-income-no-kids-yet” market.

***

I must tell you a bit about the UPLB-CA Agripark.  This little place is really an area alongside experimental paddies near the IPB at UPLB, where seminars and symposia are usually undertaken.  It’s a place where faculty members may go have cups of coffee and see exhibits about agricultural technologies developed at UPLB-CA.  As a watering hole, it’s really out-of-the-way.  Too far off the busy areas like Grove.  But going there now and then is refreshing and educational.  There are displays there of sample veggies grown through hydroponics, displays of food products, and even publications.  I understand it’s always part of “lakbay-aral” trips among LGU visitors from all over the Philippines to pay a visit to the UPLB-CA Agripark.

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UPOU Exhibits and Service Awards Ceremonies

Talking of exhibits, during the week as well, UPOU also has exhibits in relation to the celebration of the International Year of the Forests.  There are, at UPOU’s Centennial Center for Digital Learning (CCDL), displays showing products made of bamboo materials, souvenirs, publications, etc.  The participation of the UPOU in the celebration of the International Year of the Forests is facilitated by the Faculty of Management and Development Studies headed by Dean Jun Buot, precisely because the FMDS offers two degree programs in environmental management, the Diploma and Master in Environment and Natural Resources Management. (DENRM and MENRM).

While we’re at it, now is as good as anytime in informing our readers that Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay completed UPOU’s Diploma in Environment and Natural Resources Management degree program.  He graduated a couple of years back, while he was still mayor of Makati.  Today, Sen. Migz Zubiri is enrolled UPOU’s MENRM, and was even present during the tree-planting ceremonies at the UPOU grounds yesterday.

***

Just this morning, UPOU recognized the institutional loyalty of faculty and staff who have been with the institution for the last 5, 10, and 15 years.  I happen to be one of those who’ve been with the UPOU in the last 10 years.  Well, that’s only partly correct.  I transferred to the UPOU completely in 2001 (that’s why I’m considered a decade old at UPOU), but I started working toward the establishment of the UPOU way ahead of time, beginning with being member of the Management Committee that overlooked the implementation of UPLB’s Science Teaching Using Distance Instruction (STUDI) as early as the late 1980s.  So I’ve been in this for a long, long time now.

Earlier in the day at 6:00 a.m., UPOU officials, faculty and staff, as well as UPOU Guests, participated in a 3K fun run.  Photo (above) shows the group in warm-up exercises supervised by a faculty member from the UPLB Kinetics Department.  Then, UPOU staff proceeded to Tai Ichi session at the CCDL.

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To Pursue Another Ground-Breaking Program

Here’s a program idea that could become very interesting.  During lunch this noon (March 4^th) after the UPOU Service Awards program at the CCDL, I joined the table of Chancellor Gigi Alfonso, together with Vice Chancellor Mendie Lumanta, UPOU Registrar Bagi Bagarinao, and OASIS Director Jean Saludadez.  While finishing our lunch, we talked about the possibilities regarding a program on wellness, which is one of the themes of this week’s celebration.

My simple suggestion was to conceptualize a wholistic wellness program based on a strong foundation in  eastern philosophy, and embodying traditional Filipino values, ethics, and concern for natural law – which is the basis for the traditional hilot, a system of wellness and understanding of one’s relation with one’s natural and spiritual environment.  The Chancellor is convinced that this was worth pursuing.  I made it known that I would certainly be glad to be included in a small group to conceptualize such as program that could be delivered online by the UPOU.  Such a program would embrace the Filipino psche, and it’s going to be a wholistic program.

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