New Rice Varieties
Destroying Native Farming Practices
Ina Endena is concerned at the impact of
the new rice varieties on Agawa community life. Since the introduction of
the biit, the synchronized planting season has been inexistent.
During a community holiday for example, the farmers usually break the
ubaya or community taboo just to tend their fields for the application
of needed fertilizers or pesticides.
BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
I've seen her many
times in different occasions involving grassroots organizations – in
Mountain Province or in any part of Cordillera and elsewhere. In most of
these activities where I had seen her, human rights issues were the main
topics in the discussions. She comes from a place that had often been
militarized and as a consequence, human rights violations were usually
reported.
On the day before the
celebration of our paper’s fourth anniversary as a weekly and 17th as a
news dispatch, Baket Endena – a leader of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance
(CPA) in her native Mountain Province as well as the Innabuyog-GABRIELA –
came with a pizza to share with the Nordis staff, who were then busy
preparing for the occasion.
This time, my
conversation with Ina Endena, as most fondly call her, is focused on
agricultural practices in their village in Agawa, Besao in Mountain
Province.
I am touched at how
she laments that new rice varieties are slowly displacing indigenous
varieties. She is saddened at the thought that her community practices are
slowly disintegrating due to the introduction of these new varieties into
the Cordillera interior.
At first, it is hard
to comprehend how the entry of the new varieties has weakened indigenous
practices. But she explained with such clarity that I realized that we
have to respond to an urgent call from this 82-year-old elder who is still
active in grassroots organizing.
Ina Endena described
the role of the dap-ay, an indigenous socio-political system where
elders gather and talk about the beginning of the agricultural activities.
In end-September, the
elders declare three days as ubaya or community holidays.
They perform a ritual, observe signs, and if all the indications appear
good then they start the rice seedbed preparation in the padog
(rice field specifically designated for that purpose). The ubaya
also starts the land preparation. Work is done simultaneously in all rice
fields. The community residents do the preparation, planting and
harvesting in synchrony with the environment. A tradition of thanksgiving
is also performed after every harvest.
Outside influences,
she says, contribute to the weakening of their indigenous practices. She
observed this in what is happening to their indigenous rice varieties
called the bayag (literally, a long period of time). These are
slowly being set aside, she says.
These varieties
include the tupeng, ginolot, yangaw (sticky rice). She observed
that those varieties already lost are the sabsaba, kinison
and matiko.
These old varieties
are being replaced by taiwan, walay (sticky rice) and others called
biit (short) as these may be planted twice a year.
She admits that it
takes a longer wait to harvest the bayag variety, but she prefers
it to the introduced biit because these are raised with just
natural fertilizers like sunflower leaves, and a local variety of grasses,
among others. She pointed out the biit, though planted twice in a
year, need more commercial inputs like fertilizers and pesticides. She
observed that these inputs are not only expensive but makes the land
barren and therefore, dependent on these agro-chemicals.
Ina Endena is
concerned at the impact of the new rice varieties on Agawa community life.
She observes that since the introduction of the biit, the
synchronized planting season has been inexistent. In the declaration of a
community holiday for example, the farmers usually break the ubaya
or community taboo just to tend their fields for the application of needed
fertilizers or pesticides.
She also observes
that indigenous agricultural practices are environment-friendly.
Before our
interaction ended with lots of lemon grass tea and brewed coffee that
washed the pizza down our throats, I felt the need to heed her
recommendations to adopt indigenous systems. After all, these practices
have been proven to be cost-effective and environment-friendly by
indigenous communities like Agawa in Mountain Province. Northern
Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat
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