Recent Calamity in Mindanao

“NCotabato officials declare state of calamity due to flood damage…caused millions worth of damage to crops and infrastructure.” This was the headline on the ABS-CBN News online under the regional dated April 29, 2008. Same headline seen in a Local Newspapers like Sunstar davao today (May 1, 2008).

You will read more of these headlines and devastating damages soon if we continue to cut trees, continues land conversion, and continue to ignore the call to protect our soil.

The call to protect soil erosion decades ago are still the call for today. When I was 6 years old, I remember Rev. Harold Watson and Dr. Warlito Laquihon advocating sustainable agriculture in uplands and urging all to restore the degraded soil by using Sloping Agricultural Land Technology. In 2004, I myself was calling to help prevent soil erosion during the Vegetable Congress sponsored by VICSMin in Davao City. Today, I believe the same call I pose to all Filipinos.

Pardon my words but what recently happened in Cotabato is an effect of ill planning in sustainable land use and continued ignorance in soil conservation and environmental protection. I see hills with more than 40 degrees slope used without any soil erosion control for vegetables, corn and even sugarcane farming. Likewise, uplands in Cotabato, Davao, and Bukidnon, are vastly converted to plantation crops like banana, sugarcane, and pineapple (later will include jathropa) without any soil erosion measures but rather large canals for irrigation and drainage. As a result, we are experiencing flash floods.

It seems we have not learned at all from the tragedy of Leyte to the damages in Cotabato lately. Does our government have interventions or political will to protect damages in uplands and low land areas? Should the agencies like DENR and DA look into this? Should we wait for more damages? What can you do?

I wish to call the attention of all government officials, all agencies concerned, academe, NGOs, civic sector, farmers, friends and you. Let’s not wait for another tragedy and more damages to come, act now.

I wish I could help more by sharing my knowledge in agriculture, for today, I just wrote this article to start the journey of protecting our life. If you think you can make a difference, let join hands and think of a better way. Share this to a friend.

YOU’RE LOSING YOUR SOIL!

Davao, Philippines - Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT ) proved to effectively reduced soil erosion over other systems. This was revealed through the conduct of a 8-year study (1997-2004) on different soil conservation measures at Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) in Kinuskusan, Bansalan, Davao del Sur, Philippines.

Results revealed that SALT and vetiver grass had effectively reduced the soil loss of about half ton/ha/yr and 1.5 tons/ha/yr, respectively. On comparison, there is a remarkable soil loss in rockwall (32.40 tons/ha/year) when compared to other treatments. Terrace and natural barrier had lesser erosion rates of 5.13 and 6.22 tons/ha/year, respectively.

A cement catchment were established at the lowest portion of the hillside. Eroded soil that were trapped in the cement catchment were collected and weighed after every significant rain.

The result suggests’ that the farmers can effectively use SALT and vetiver grass to prevent losing the precious top soil. The disadvantages seen using vetiver grass are: it consumes higher space requirement thus lesser area for productive crops and since its a grass, it competes with corn on nutrient uptake.

According to Warlito A. Laquihon and Harold Ray Watson, former Associate Director & Director of MBRLC respectively, "The price of soil loss is poverty, but we have seen land restored to a reasonable level of productivity by using SALT”


Let’s not wait and get the price of poverty. Instead, adopt SALT now and get the price of sustainable productivity. - jxysl