In Pangasinan, farm time shifts amid climate change

ADAPTATION The “manag-sikka” (farmhands) in Pangasinan pull palay seedlings for transplanting in a farm in Aguilar, Pangasinan. During the dry months, they prefer to work at night and endure the cold than labor under the scorching sun during the day. This shift is due to erratic weather and impact of climate change that they have been experiencing for the past three years. —Photos by Willie Lomibao

CALASIAO, PANGASINAN, Philippines — Eva Penullar, 56, suits up just before midnight in a long-sleeved shirt and tattered pants, completing her work outfit with a headgear fitted with a small “hunter” flashlight. “I drink a cup of coffee, and I am ready to go to work,” said Penullar, a mother of six from Barangay San Leon in Pangasinan’s Umingan town.

In the nearby village of San Vicente, also in Umingan, 10 women of different ages perform the same late-night ritual while waiting to be fetched by a vehicle sent by a farmer from this town.

Their destination is an agricultural field where they will uproot and bundle palay (rice plant) seedlings from the nursery in preparation for transplanting in the paddy.

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Penullar and the other women are farm laborers, commonly referred to as “manag-sikka,” responsible for this specific task. The headlight guides them in the dark as they plunge into the watery paddy, where they briskly uproot foot-long seedlings, hoping to finish the job before daybreak.

Somewhere in Mangatarem, also an agricultural town in western Pangasinan, the manag-sikka start “early” in the night, at 10 p.m., and finish the job around 4 a.m. the following day.

But why do they work in the dead of night?

Ponciano Onia, the farmer for whom the women work, said “panag-sikka” (Ilocano for the process of uprooting and tying of palay seedlings) used to be done at daytime, but farm laborers now prefer to work at night because it has become too hot during the day.

“The farm’s working hours shifted from daytime to nighttime some three to four years ago. Panag-sikka is done by women who can hardly endure the sun’s heat boring on their head and back, and which makes the paddy’s water almost uncomfortably hot for them to sit and uproot the seedlings,” Onia said.

Emmalie Paulo, an official in Bulalacao village in Mangatarem, said working hours in the farm have been adjusted in the town because “it is too hot at daytime, even for farmers who are used to extreme working conditions.”

In late April, the peak heat index recorded in Dagupan City, the major business hub of Pangasinan, reached 51 degrees Celsius. The weather bureau considers a heat index ranging from 42ºC to 51ºC falling under the “danger category,” with higher risk for heat-related illnesses such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion and even heat stroke.

Risks

But while the temperature is cooler, working in the middle of the night in the paddies poses risks to farmhands, including getting bitten by snakes that may be lurking on the farm.

“They beat the paddy with a wooden stick before they start working to ensure that there are no pests or snakes there,” Onia said.

The shifting hours show that agriculture bears the brunt of climate change, with Pangasinan farmers and laborers experiencing its impact on the industry in the past three years.

While farmhands may not be aware of the technical terms associated with climate change, they feel its dent on their livelihood. If there is “hierarchy” in the agriculture sector, the manag-sikka are at the lowest rung.

During the Pangasinan Climate Change Summit conducted in July by the Center for Preparedness Foundation (CPDF) in Calasiao town, the changing climate patterns was among the topics discussed with participants from vulnerable agricultural and fishing towns.

Farmers, like Alejandro Garbo of Cabayaoasan in Bugallon town, shared their first-hand experiences about the impact of climate change.

In his community, Garbo said 192 hectares of agricultural land were turning into wasteland because of saltwater intrusion, forcing residents to find other sources of livelihood, such as fishing.

CHALLENGING CONDITIONS Fishpond workers unload a fresh harvest of bangus in Dagupan City. In Pangasinan’s coastal towns, fishermen are forced to sail farther out to sea and spend more days there due to lesser catch in municipal waters when temperatures rise during the summer months.

Fishers, too

But even fishermen are affected by climate change, said fisherfolk leader Jesem Gabatin who, during the summit, talked about the state of the fishing industry in Bolinao, a western Pangasinan town that juts into the Lingayen Gulf and the West Philippine Sea.

The changing weather patterns have seemingly affected the behavior of fish, which hardly eat or bite the bait when the weather is hot, said Gabatin, chair of the Integrated Fisheries Aquatic Resource Management Council in the town.

“This necessitates the fishermen staying longer in the sea. Before, they stay at the sea for three days; now, fishermen have to stay for four to five days to catch the same volume of fish. This means more expenses for their food and fuel for their boats,” he said.

Gabatin said fishermen from the town use long lines, a kind of fishing gear with a main line and branches of lines on which baits are attached. The long lines are set some 100 to 150 kilometers away from the shore, where “payaw” (fish aggregating devices) are located.

But the volume of catch is affected when fish seemingly lose their appetite during dry weather months.

“During the dry season, fish don’t like to eat, so they don’t bite the bait. Maybe they are like humans who can hardly eat when the weather is too hot,” he said in Filipino.

Since the fish are no longer biting the bait, many fishermen use nets as additional catching devices. Others use single lines with squid as bait, which are cast deeper into the water where it is cooler and therefore, where fish aggregate.

During the “habagat” (southwest monsoon) or rainy months when the air is cool, the fish readily bite the bait, local fishermen oberserved.

But the erratic weather in recent years has been posing danger to fishermen while at sea, Gabatin said.

“Sometimes during the rainy season, when we see the sun is up, we go to the sea. And then suddenly, strong winds catch us while at sea, a dangerous situation for fishermen especially those with small boats,” he said.

This scenario is far different some 20 years ago, when fishermen did not go far out to sea, only staying in the municipal waters or up to 15 km from the shore.

“Even after just a half day of fishing in the municipal waters, a farmer can catch 10 kilos of fish like ‘talakitok’ (trevally/jack), ‘malaga’ (siganid, samaral) and small barracuda,” Gabatin recalled.

Since the municipal waters now hardly yield fish, local fishermen have to go farther out to sea, which means bigger expenses and lesser “take home pay.”

Other livelihood sources

Fishing families have to find other sources of income to augment whatever they earn from fishing, such as selling vegetables or other commodities they buy at the market, to their neighbors, Gabatin said.

When the sailing gets really rough, they resort to acquiring loans, especially when they have children who need support for their school needs.

Pangasinan derives most of its income from agriculture, according to the CPDF, quoting the Philippine Statistics Authority. The province is one of the top rice producers in the country, and is a major source of lowland vegetables and eggplant. It is also a major fish supplier in Luzon because it has extensive areas devoted to aquaculture while its coastline faces the Lingayen Gulf and the West Philippine Sea.

But the climate change projection for Pangasinan is most likely to have a significant impact on the province’s agriculture and fisheries sectors.

Farmers and the fishermen are already feeling the brunt of climate change, with farmers no longer knowing when to start planting and fishermen no longer knowing when to time their fishing trips.

“There is a need for strengthening the capacity of municipal agriculture officers in understanding weather variability, so they can in turn educate the farmers [and fishers],” the summit participants said.