Flood-tolerant rice variety saves farmers in Eastern Samar

ORMOC CITY, Philippines — A flood-tolerant (submergence-tolerant or subtol) rice variety introduced in flood prone areas of Oras town in Eastern Samar three years ago was recently found to have produced additional yield for the farmers of this agricultural community.

Rice variety sub-1 gene stood among the 16 varieties introduced in the pilot lots in Bgy Buntay, one of the 31 barangays affected by flooding recently. The variety can withstand 20 days underwater, but still produces the desired yield.

The town of Oras, though contributing 2,000 hectares out of the total 35,200 hectares planted with rice in the Eastern Visayas region, only has one cropping every year because of prolonged flooding of the 31 barangays where rice farmers are concentrated.

Farmers also incurred 35 percent in production loss during rainy season and experts said that with the onslaught of climate change, the loss may climb up even higher.

In July of 2008, the town of Oras in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the European Commission Disaster Preparedness Program (DIPECHO) and the Department of Agriculture-Region 8 Field Unit tested 16 subtol rice genotypes for three cropping season in Buntay.

This was done with the International Rice Research Institute and Philippine Rice Research Institute providing the seeds and technical support through the Eastern Visayas Integrated Agricultural Research Center.

Buntay is one of the 31 flood-prone villages with a vast area for rice production accessible only by a two hour boat trip upstream. Farmers here still practice "payatak" with paddies having no bunds and dikes, thus leaving little means to conserve rainwater, and allowing only one cropping season a year using traditional seeds of unknown origin.

After the trial, two well-performing rice genotypes were selected in terms of yield and adaptability by the initial 18 farmer co-operators during the Farmer's Field Day and Participatory Varietal Selection.

Today, farmer-cooperators realize two cropping season with this improved method of rice production. In cooperation with Department of Agriculture-8's Agricultural Training Institute, they are conducting to increase the number of available seeds to potential farmer-adaptors in the 31 flood prone barangays of Oras.

The activity is currently being expanded to 20 hectares and 35 additional farmer-cooperators who will integrate this technology into their existing cropping calendar relative to the proper cultural management practices in these flood-prone rice growing areas.

Experts likewise said the adoption of a new and appropriate cropping calendar using subtol genotypes, which evades excessive water and prolonged submersion especially during La Niña, is the most appropriate mitigation or adaptation measure.

They are also confident that the intervention in Oras will mitigate the ill effects of flooding in these adverse rice ecosystems, improve farmers' income and ultimately contribute to the food security of vulnerable communities in a sustainable manner.

Rice is the Philippines' major agricultural commodity grown in over 3.2 million hectares, or 23 percent of the total agricultural land. – THE FREEMAN