ALTERNATIVES TO DESTRUCTIVE CORN FARMING

Our previous feature on the destructive corn farming in Northern Iloilo elicited some reactions one of which asked us what alternatives can be done and what regulations can be formulated. Firstly, there should be pro-action in this because this is both an economic and political problem.

Farmers planting corn in Northern Iloilo were first encouraged by the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office VI (DA-RFU-6) under its massive corn program in the late 1990s, according to Mrs. Almi Villamera, Provincial Corn Coordinator. The main purpose was to meet the requirements of feed corn by the livestock industry. Even at that time, Panay livestock farmers particularly those involved in hogs and broilers were already hard-pressed to find reliable sources of yellow corn which often comprises as much as 40% of their animals' diet.

Trial plantings in Northern Iloilo proved profitable and this grew into a multi- million industry with traders and some politicians joining the band wagon of both production and trading. The financial and marketing arrangement was two-way beneficial for both trader/financier and the farmers. The latter provided land and labor while the former provided the inputs and guaranteed the market. The wife of one politician in Northern Iloilo even became the national corn farmer of the year a few years back.

Everything seemed fine for the market-driven industry with not one agency of government giving attention to the massive expansion which now encroached to the critical slope areas of Northern Iloilo. Even the Provincial Agriculture Office did not insist on regulating this massive planting since the first line of operation lodged on the Municipal Agriculture Offices of the municipalities affected.

Slope farming should not be destructive to the environment however. There are now available technologies that will mitigate the effects of removing vegetation for the purpose of planting corn. SALT or Sloping Agricultural Land Technology developed by the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center in Bansalan, Davao del Sur focuses on building contour lines on the slope and planting nitrogen fixing trees like ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala spp.), madre de cacao (Gliricidia sepium), libas (Spondias pinnata (Linn. f.) Kurz. ) and legume shrubs like rhinzoni, flemengia and cadios (cajanus cajan) and malunggay (Moringa oleifera).

A similar technology called Alley Cropping had been developed in the Americas where equidistant bands of leguminous species are planted leaving spaces for commercial crops like corn and dry land rice. Like the SALT, alley cropping focuses on preserving the land from being eroded due to the bands that help control the down flow of the soil from higher ground. The bands of legumes serve both as soil control and sources of green manure at the same time.

Legumes have the ability to fix or access Nitrogen from the air through the symbiotic relationship with the nitrogen fixing bacteria that lives in their root system. The bacteria using phosphates absorbed by the roots of the trees absorb Nitrogen and convert this element into nitrates. When the bacteria die off, the nitrates become available to the plant which then utilize this for growth. Farmers can make use of the nitrates as fertilizer for their crops by harvesting the leaves and soft stems and decompose them either through compost-making or by simple burying near the base of the plants they want to fertilize.

The No-Till Farming Technology or Zero Tillage Technology is another option for corn farmers. This technology focuses on the drilling corn seeds in a vegetation covered land. Weeds are controlled so that it doesn't compete with corn for much needed fertilizers and sunlight. Chemicals herbicides like paraquat and glyphosates are used to killo the weeds and the dead organic matter is left on the spaces between the rows which help control erosion by softening the impact of rainwater and retard the down flow of wet soil that could have been washed down the slope. But these herbicides also create a negative impact on the environment as they may pollute the streams directly below the slopes.

Organic farming modifications of the No Till Farming technology calls for the use of leguminous vegetation to completely cover the planting area and where the corn seeds may be drilled. This has many advantages aside from the lower cost of production as a result of not plowing the land anymore. Some farmers advocating this technology, rely on the use of leguminous ground cover which not only holds the soil but also helps maintain fertility by fixing nitrogen from the air. Some of the species used are the creeping peanut (Arachis pintoi), legume vines like centrosema (Centrosema pubescens), red or velvet bean (mucuna pruriens), tropical kudzu (Calopogonium mucoides).

In the organic No Till Farming Technology, weeds are suppressed with the use of mechanical equipment or by simple rollers drawn by a small tractor or by the carabao. The leguminous plants buried are immediately decomposed by the action of burying and by micro organisms present in the soil. If the farmer had been practicing this technology for a long time, it can be possible that earthworms may have already re-established and will be helping re-fertilize the soil by their castings or manure. A well managed leguminous ground cover can fix about 50 to 100 kilograms of pure nitrogen from the air annually and farmers can save as much as 50% fertilizer requirement.

Still another option is inter-cropping of various other crops if only to provide ground cover for the spaces between the corn crop. In the training sites of the Farmer Scientists Training Program (FSTP) of the province, farmers engage hands-on training in corn-based intercropping where initial results have shown promise. Mrs. Villamera said that the results of the corn-peanut inter-crop trials showed that yields of both corn and peanut were higher than the average. Peanuts being a legume needs only Phosphorus as it can fix its own nitrogen requirement from the air. Corn may have benefited from the inter-relationship of the inter-cropping strategy. She further said that the corn-sweet potato intercrop trials are not yet concluded since sweet potato has a longer growing period.

No till corn farming and inter-cropping have not yet been widely adopted in Iloilo. Recently retired Crop Division Head, Reynaldo Osano once stated that these technologies are still being tested and taught to Iloilo farmers. He has apprehensions however as to their acceptability and adoption since they may be cost intensive at the start. Besides, farmers have the tendency to be suspicious of newly introduced technologies since there is doubt as to the chances of success as well as to their sustainability. Mrs. Villamera added that the adoption of the successful trials on integrated farming still hinges on affordability, capability of farmers to adopt and sustain and most importantly, attitude for change for the better.

There are alternatives to mono-crop corn farming and they had been proven successful in other areas of the globe and this country. It is unfortunate that when the Department of Agriculture advocated for massive corn planting, they did not set boundaries or restrictions in terms of land usage and terrain. For the technicians of this department, there was only a single-minded purpose which is to produce corn for the other end user, the livestock farmers. In the process, we have destroyed our forested slopes and made them prone to erosion and landslide, a grave and present environmental danger. We should regulate corn planting in slopes NOW!