The Quack! Alternative
By Solomon Hernandez
Rice has been considered as the most important food crop in the Philippines. For centuries, it has been tied to our country’s culture and heritage. This staple food of ours is produced extensively in Luzon, Western Visayas, Central Mindanao, and Southern Mindanao, contributing to the placing of our country as the 8th largest rice producer in the world.
The rice we produce accounts for more than 2.8 percent of global rice production. Ironically, though, we are also considered as one of the world’s largest importer of rice, a fact considered by some as a national shame.
Back in 2010, the Philippines actually became the biggest buyer of rice in the globe, reaching 1,300,000 metric tons of imported rice. By 2013, we managed to step it down a notch and bumping down to the 8th place, with 1,450,000 metric tons of imported rice. Unfortunately in 2014, we jumped back up making it to the 4th spot, with 1,600,000 metric tons of imports due to recent typhoons and spikes in local retail prices of grain.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Philippines is even on track to holding the 3rd spot in the world’s largest rice importers. It is a well-known fact that, decades, the Philippines has been unable to produce sufficient rice for its constantly increasing population, which is one of the reasons why we continuously import rice from rice-cultivating countries.
To help increase rice production in the country, pesticides are usually utilized. Generally, a pesticide is a chemical or biological agent that prevents, disables, or kills pests such as insects, plant pathogens, weeds, mollusks, birds, mammals, fish, roundworms, and microbes that may cause diseases to the plants. It is true that when a farmer uses pesticides, he can save money by preventing crop losses to insects and other pests. Nevertheless, while having its many benefits, pesticides also have certain shortcomings.
After using pesticides – yes, we can say that the bugs and the pests are gone – but what happens to the chemicals that were used to create those pesticides? Do they affect the crops? Yes, indeed, they do.
A process called nitrogen fixation, which is beneficial in growing plants, is hindered by pesticides left in the soil. It contaminates the natural food systems which includes the water systems. Furthermore, during the application of pesticides, farmers – excluding those that use masks – cannot help but inhale the chemicals sprayed into the air; thus, increasing their chances of acquiring diseases of the lungs.
So, how can we avoid these hazards and still harvest abundant produce?
One really good alternative for the dangerous pesticides would be the innovative way of rice-duck farming. For the past sixteen years, Jose Apollo Pacamalan, the leading expert in integrated rice-duck farming system (IRDFS), has been persuading Filipino farmers – especially in Mindanao – to trade in their costly and hazardous chemical sprayers for week-old ducklings that will work in their rice fields.
The rice-duck farming system, he explains, is all about growing rice and ducks together in an irrigated field. As the duck paddles on its waters, it stimulates the rice plants to produce more grains. In addition to this, the duck manures will act as fertilizers for the soil. Eventually, the need for expensive fertilizers will be removed. Moreover, the ducks also eat harmful insects and weeds, including the dreaded golden snail (kuhol).
“Nobody can beat ducks in terms of pest-management in rice. Kahit anong klaseng insecticide, kahit anong klaseng pesticide, walang makakatalo sa ducks,” Pacamalan states.
This system is proven to be one that, if used properly, can significantly increase productivity in rice. Based on the experience of more than 1,000 rice-duck farmers in the Philippines, most of them coming from Mindanao, IRDFS has increased rice productivity up to 9 tons per hectare; significantly higher compared to the average of 4.2 tons per hectare when using the conventional rice farming technology. In addition to this, IRDFS also reduces the production cost by 40% and is considered as the only organic rice farming technology in the Philippines that can effectively be adopted on a large scale.
In addition to the increased productivity in rice, we can also reap from rice-duck farming the extra income that comes from the sale of duck meat and duck eggs. Duck eggs can be processed into salted eggs or balut – a Filipino delicacy that is popular and is in very high demand. Female ducks can be even sold to breed when they are old enough. Pacamalan shares that the average cost for one female duck is around ₱40.00 for their capacity to lay eggs. The males, on the other hand, only cost a mere ₱5.00.
“Isa lang ang formula sa Agriculture productivity…ang ‘gawin lang; one, is reduce the cost; two, increase productivity. That’s rice-duck farming. You reduce the cost using ducks and you increase productivity by producing the ducks and rice in one area.”
These all contribute to food security and the economic growth, especially in the rural areas, that is both sustainable and wide-ranging.
Moreover, he adds “in our estimate, or even the estimate of the Department of Agriculture, we need [an] additional six sacks of rice every hectare for us to be stable in terms of supply and demand…. The government cannot solve the problem of rice insufficiency if we always rely on modern rice farming, where farmers are being taught on how to apply fertilizer [and] pesticides, kase lugi man pirmi.”
