Traditional upland rice and cultural heritage preservation

Almugan, bird of omen among the Blaan tribe

Blaan women play vital role in upland rice farming

Bot tne ritual during the first Upland Rice Festival of Kihan back in 2005

Lamgi, a re-enactment of the upland rice planting

Traditional upland rice as a common cultural heritage is deeply ingrained in the belief systems and practices of the Blaan in Kihan. Their traditional knowledge is transferred from one individual to another individual (Emery, 2000).Traditional upland rice farming practices and cultural beliefs are distinct in each stage of the agricultural cycle. During the planting season, the farmers invoke the help of Dwata or Meleh through a ritual called mabah. The message is revealed through a wild fruit dove called almugan making a pleasing sound that must be heard through the left ear. This is to determine the suitability of the area for upland rice planting considering the position of the blatik (stars) known by the Blaan as samkyab and tubong. This is an illustration of a world view from an experience-based relationship with family, animals, places, spirits and the land (Emery, 2000). The Blaan have an elaborate ritual of ‘bot tne’ symbolizing the desire to have a good harvest. Planting is a major role done by the women. Their planting is initiated by chanting lamgi of slow to fast tempo while dibbling and placing rice seeds called bne right into the tiny dibbled hole. This is joyous and fun as old folks exchange lamgi chants. The most important variety in any upland rice farm is the mlikat lagfisan strategically planted in the middle of the rice field. This variety is considered to have the power and strength to protect the upland rice farm and give intellect to those who eat from it. During the harvest, an elaborate ritual of tuke fali is done beginning pandoman (thanks giving ceremony), amngawe (exchange of chants), and finally damsu (offering). Rice harvests vary with respect to the size of the farm, number of varieties planted and crop losses due to pest infestation. Their upland rice harvest is allocated for consumption of the household, seed keeping, payment for farm labor, for celebration, gifts and some reserved for special occasions. Those who have big farms and excess harvest sell their upland rice to the local market. The upland rice for consumption is dehulled manually by big mortar and pestle producing different color of rice, some are red, black, yellowish and some are brown .Different varieties produce different rice texture and aroma when cooked.

Cultural pest management practiced by the upland rice farmers

Diverse crops like sesame seeds, other vegetables planted inside and alongside the ricefarms

Planting other crops for borders

Fol

Cultural pest management practiced by the upland rice farmers when their rice is on its boosting, milking and maturity stage is very crude as they do not use fertilizers. They make borders and planted other crops that could also serve as alternate hosts for pests and insects. They make use of burning rubber based materials such as slippers and old tires on the corner of their farm to get rid of rats. They also burn tails of the rat they caught and do clearing along the sides of their field. While waiting for harvest, the farmer is preparing for the storage house or the granary for the harvest that they called fol. They also make scarecrows and rattles with empty cans to shoo away the maya birds that will eat the mature grains. They also set up indigenous traps in their fields. This is being manned during the day by the farmer’s child not going to school. Another belief system associated in upland rice farming is that no women having menstrual flow will be allowed to participate in planting or even roam around the rice field as it will entice insects and pests to infest the field. The ensemble of traditional crop protection practices used by the indigenous farmers represents a rich resource for modern workers seeking to create Integrated Pest Management (IPM) systems well adapted to the agro-ecological, cultural and socio-economic circumstances facing small farmers (Altieri, 1993).

Cultural resource management for seed selection, seed keeping and storage

          Blaan upland rice farmers have their unique cultural resource management for seed selection, seed keeping and storage. Most farmers inherited their seeds from their family and forefathers. Some got their seeds through barter and labor payment, some from the Barangay Council and the UDP, some from seed exchanges among relatives living in another place.

Air drying

Fol, storage house and also for airing freshly harvested upland rice

  

Tidal, unique way of seed storage for next planting season

Coconut shell for storing very small quantity of rare upland rice varieties

Use of lihub, sacks, baen (baskets) and kalfilo (shoulder bag-like basket)

 Given the volume of their harvest, they use a storage house called fol, a hallowed bamboo called tidal, a cylindrical container made out of tree bark called lihub, indigenous basket called baen, bluyot  and kalfilo. Some use sacks in the absence of the baen,bluyot or kalfilo. For very small quantity of diminishing variety, they use a nicely polished big coconut shell. Other farmers make bundles of upland rice and hang them in a safe place near the kitchen to dry the seeds and keep away from rats. These cultural practices for seed storage made the upland rice farmers effective seed custodians, keeping and continually planting their traditional varieties. Women played and equally significant role as the male counterpart with regards to seed selection for the next planting season.

Genetic erosion factors in the upland rice farms of Kihan

Farmers expressed that there are 62 varieties considered diminishing and 47 varieties were no longer cultivated in their farms. Reasons for the non-cultivation and dis-appearance of the rare upland rice varieties are: El Nino and La Nina phenomenon in 1998, difficulty to pound by some varieties due to their tiny size; hard grain texture when cooked, late maturing variety, lack of capital for cultivation and payment of farm labor; low seed availability, and low yield during harvest time, introduction of modern varieties and more cultivation for cash crops. Given this situation, conservation appears to be driven by the needs where farmers conserve varieties with desired agronomic traits to the exclusion of other varieties. Crops and varieties grown by farmers primarily depended on their use and the individual farmers’ preferences (Huvio, 1999). In some cases, little or no effort done at the conservation due to unavailability of the abovementioned planting materials. Information gathered revealed the there is genetic erosion of rice gene pool in the area due to non-cultivation of other traditional cultivars. In a few cases, the large number of rice varieties and the very small planting areas had contributed to genetic erosion. Also, small harvest is directly related to the small size of the upland rice farm. The smaller the farm, the smaller harvest per variety affecting their allocation of the harvested upland rice resource. Growing number of the family leads to the consumption of upland rice kept for seeds and other cultural uses to cope for household food. The diverse rice cultivars are disappearing unless measures will be undertaken to stop or minimize the occurrence of genetic erosion in the upland rice farmer’s fields of Brgy. Kihan. This loss of crop varieties causes genetic erosion or a loss of genetic resource which is a negative consequence of agricultural development (Brush, 2000).

Lowland influences contributed to vanishing traditional upland rice varieties

Focus group discussions and survey among the farmers indicated distinct lowland influences that modified traditional farming systems in Kihan. The over all impact of the lowland influences is a threat to the cultural survival of their unique Blaan traditional upland rice agriculture For one, they noted that the introduction of cash economy and paid labor displaced the Bayanihan systems that the farmers had been using for many generations, has resulted in hunger, poverty and indebtedness. The change of mindset of the Blaan affects their sense of volunteerism especially among the younger generation that opted for money as payment for farm labor. The economic forces from the lowland business men like the demand for the bya-o enticed more farmers to go to the hinterlands and look for the bya-o as it commands quick and bigger money. Another lowland influence is the adoption of hybrid irrigated rice introduced to the farmers that cause them to discard their traditional variety. Also, it forced the farmers to buy synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that is an added burden to them. Farmers who shifted to planting irrigated rice varieties realized that if hybrid rice cultivation is intensified, it will result to further upland rice genetic loss in their field. Unlike upland rice, they do not perform rituals in planting and harvesting of the hybrid irrigated rice. The promotion of high yielding cash crops especially modern variety of corn is another lowland influence that modified Kihan’s agricultural landscape. Most farmers have bigger area for corn farm rather than upland rice farm. This shift in agricultural system makes their bigger farm a mono-crop of corn displacing most of the crops that are found within the upland rice farms. They keep smaller size of their farm for upland rice. The shift in the corn cropping system prompted again for the farmers to buy synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to ensure optimum corn yield. This decision of farmers to cultivate bigger area for corn has become a salient factor in the diminishing upland rice varieties. Another cultural change is that, no rituals and traditional practices are performed in their corn farming experience. Post-harvest and transportation cost for corn harvest is another stage that farmer has to struggle with just to earn marginal income. They have to hire horses to transport their product gong to the Barangay and haul their products through the weapon before it would reach the final market. This alone cost a lot for the farmers.