Save rice terraces bid starts

BAGUIO CITY—A technical engineering team sent to Ifugao last week by Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala has finalized a work plan for restoring the province’s rice terraces and for reviving its watershed, the agency’s Cordillera director said.

It would take a year to employ an operational plan to begin work on the Batad rice terraces in Banaue town, said Marilyn Sta. Catalina, DA Cordillera director.

“This would be a series of work plans,” she said, which would also cover the rice terraces clusters in the towns of Mayoyao, Hungduan and Kiangan.

On Feb. 1, the provincial government mounted a series of tourism projects aimed at drawing tourists who may want to volunteer work or resources in helping repair the better-known Batad rice terraces, which were damaged across years of unusually strong monsoon rains.

P36.2 million for Batad

Sta. Catalina said government will start with Batad because of its economic impact on the province’s tourism.

She said work on Batad entails up to P36.2 million in funds from an interagency task force, composed of the DA, the National Irrigation Administration, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Ifugao Cultural Heritage Office (Icho) and local governments hosting five rice terraces clusters.

These clusters were declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) as among the World Heritage Sites.

In a task force meeting on Feb. 8 and 9, the agencies’ representatives said extreme climate led to the destruction of 38 sections of rice terraces in different Ifugao towns, a DA fact sheet showed.

Officials had urged the national government to hasten restoration work so farmers could recover from farm losses estimated to have reached P250.8 million, following the onslaught of Typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel” last year.

But the terrace losses have been offset by a 7.1 percent increase in overall rice yield in the region in 2011, owing to a wider production area in Kalinga, a hybrid rice-producing province, said Danilo Daguio, DA Cordillera technical director for operations.

Palay production grew from 400,415 metric tons (MT) in 2010 to 428,949 MT last year, the DA said.

Indigenous over hybrid rice

Daguio said Filipino scientists were able to develop a cold-resistant, high-yield rice variety for the terraces but Ifugao farmers refused to replace their traditional “tinawon” (literally, once a year) varieties.

Sta. Catalina said the hybrid rice grains were too fragile and crumble easily, which farmers rejected in favor of tinawon because that variety could be stored for a longer period.

Reflecting on the potentials for high-value organic markets of tinawon and other upland rice, Sta. Catalina said the DA allowed the DA Cordillera to realign funds meant for popularizing high-yield rice in favor of propagating indigenous rice.

The plans for restoring the terraces now include provisions for community tinawon seed banking and rebuilding 25 hectares of denuded watersheds using indigenous tree varieties.

The project also requires the government to increase the forest cover of a combined 12 hectares of muyong.

Muyong are clan woodlots which serve as buffer between the settlements and the communal rainforests at the top of the hills or mountains where the terraces are carved, according to the book, “Impact: Sustainable Tourism and the Preservation of the World Heritage Site of the Ifugao Rice Terraces.”  Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon and Leila Salaverria in Manila