By Edmundo Y. Cejar
MALUNGON, Sarangani (MindNews) — Principal crop in most small upland farms in Malungon is corn, as in most other places.
After years of being subjected to herbicides, pesticides and inorganic fertilizers top soil is gone, ground-packed and /or rocky. Only cogon (Imperata cylindrica) thrives.
When it rains, soil erosion turns streams and rivers into murky liquid.
Cutting trees for more cornfields have dried up many mountain springs to a trickle or completely gone. Residues from pesticides of every chemical class are absorbed by the groundwater beneath farms lace the water farmers drink.
Every year corn yield from this increasingly arid soil goes down, forcing farmers to put in more synthetic fertilizers on the soil in the misguided belief that it will improve yield. But plants can only take so much and excess fertilizers simply leach to the ground.
Some pests also develop resistance to pesticides, again, forcing farmers to increase dosage thereby increasing the level of residues on the ground. According to studies over 400 insects and mite pests and more than 70 fungal pathogens have become resistant to one or more pesticides.
Regenerative Farming
Reversing the declining soil health is urgent now. Regenerative farming offers hope.
Regenerative farming is an approach or philosophy. It is not a set of specific practices so various practitioners may have different practices.
The common ground is that it is a way of producing food that repairs and restores soil health and protects the climate, water resources, and biodiversity. The basic principles are no-tillage, cover crops, rotation cropping, reduced or zero use of chemical inputs, and integration of plants and animals.
No tillage
Minimum soil disturbance allows helpful soil biology that contributes to soil health. Only holes or channels are dug where seeds are planted. The Indigenous Peoples have been practicing this for millennia. We should relearn this practice.
No tillage also reduces soil erosion.
Cover crops
A cover crop is a plant that is used primarily to slow erosion, improve soil health, enhance water availability, smother weeds, and help control pests and diseases. In upland localities, the mongo-mongo or wild mung bean (Vigna radiata) is cheap and readily available in farms. The added benefit of wild mung bean as cover crop is that being a legume it fixes nitrogen in the soil.
Crop rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a different crop after another in the same area each season. For example, you may plant beans, peanuts, or other nitrogen-fixing plants in one season but corn, rice, and vegetables that use nitrogen during the next season. By planting different crops, the life cycle of harmful insects is disrupted, reducing infestation.
Reduced or zero use of synthetic inputs
It has been proven that sustained and excessive use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides leads to soil degradation, water pollution, and harm to friendly organisms, and human health. It also increases greenhouse gas emissions, and soil and water pollution.
Regenerative farming practices like crop rotation, no-tillage, and cover crops repair natural soil fertility and reduce or eliminate the need for synthetic inputs.
Integration of plants and animals
Farm animals like goats, cattle, horses, carabaos grazing in the farm mix their urine and manure into the soil with their hooves. Chicken, duck and turkey wastes make nutritious fertilizers when composted.
Animal dung increases soil organic matter which feeds soil life. It enhances the natural cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and water, all of which boost beneficial insects, soil microbes, and fungi.
One example of regenerative farming
Riovista Forest Gardens is a 47-hectare rolling farm with an elevation of 325 MASL in Malungon, Sarangani.
1. Natural Reforestation or sylvigenesis.
Steep hills left bare by grazing and charcoal–making were left to fallow, allowing endemic plants and trees to slowly take over the areas, becoming a second-growth forest in seven years. In some areas, narra, molave, and bamboos are planted.
The trees became the home of many kinds of birds, the undergrowth was reclaimed by small animals and the soil now teems with microorganisms, earthworms, and millipedes feeding on decaying organic matter.
Trees and plants have a cooling effect on the surrounding areas. Roots absorb water, releasing moisture to lower grounds slowly when there is no rain. Nutrients from decomposed plants and trees flow down to fertilize soil in lower grounds.
And lastly, trees and plants in the woodland sequester carbon dioxide. These mini-forests are scattered all over the farm.
2. Inter-cropping and multi-cropping
The farm mimics the “halo-halo” scheme of nature. In one area coconut, lanzones, jackfruit, avocado, cacao, and some other fruit trees are planted together. In another area, only pomelos are grown. Adjacent to pomelos is corn. Still in another are cardava bananas. The farm looks more like a topsy-turvy forest than an orderly farm. There is no crop rotation as most crops are permanent.
3. Erosion control
Along the bank of the river, “kling” bamboos which have a more dense root system than other varieties are planted to control river bank erosion. In exposed hillsides, vetiver grass or citronella are planted, or natural grass ground cover is allowed to grow.
4. Green manuring
Only grasses around tall and short plant crops are cut to the ground. Otherwise, these are allowed to grow or only trimmed short. The cut grasses, including the leaves of the plants, are allowed to decay on the ground which provides food to soil microorganisms. These in turn release trace elements that feed the plants.
Controlled grass cover also keeps soil moisture from evaporating.
5. Enriching the soil and with animal integration
For coconut, “Mycovam” microorganisms are inoculated into the soil. As mentioned earlier these microorganisms function as plant food factories, along with earthworms and millipedes.
Farm horses, goats, and carabaos were discontinued as they required more care and large areas to graze. But the small animals and birds in the forest help enrich the soil. Free-range chickens roam the farm. They feed on harmful insects and their droppings help enrich the soil.
6. Zero tillage
Plowing has been discontinued so as not to disturb/destroy the biological soil life. Only holes or channels in the soil are dug where seeds are planted.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Edmundo Y. Cejar is a regenerative farming practitioner and a natural reforestation advocate. Before shifting to farming, he worked for Dutch Philips Discrete Semiconductors, Gillette, Union Carbide and Davao Fruits.)
