Step 20: Bad weather for the School Farm of Sagay

No good news today! I have to tell you the contract linking me to Virlanie stopped on 15^th of October. The main reason is the lack of financing. Virlanie and I tried since 3.5 years to find donors for this project. We found some (Thanks to Air France, Fondation GLNF pour la Promotion de l’Homme, and Region Midi-Pyrenees) but not enough.

Recently, a Belgian NGO, DISOP, offered a possibility of financing after study, as high as 80% of the total budget but only in 2011. Unhopefully, Virlanie was not able to find the financing from October 15th to 2011. A special thanks to Kathleen Deckmyn-Cordero who gave me the hope to save the project during a few months. Our vision of education and needs in the Philippines are so closed that our roads will certainly cross again.

For me, this project is closed and if it continues, it will be with other options or a vision completely different from the generous original idea.

Arrived at this point I have to thanks so many people for their help that I risk to forget some of them. I hope they will forgive me.

This project would have not existed in Sagay City without Dominique Lemay, President of Virlanie, Beth Calvez, a former Executive Director of Virlanie and Edgardo Uychiat (Nisard), who introduced me to Mayor Alfredo G. Maranon Jr. This four people must receive all my gratitude. Different offices of the City Hall offered a great help with a special mention to Eng. Manuel Lopez, Marylyn Manuel, Wally Afuang, Eng. Alenco, and Charlie for mapping and earthwork machine, Mr. Cueva (Marine Research), Mr. Pinongan who solved all the problems with former farmers of the lot, and Jerilu Ganancial from Department of Agriculture.

Other NGO like Nisard (thanks to Rommel and Robert), Negros Forest and Ecological Foundation (Gerardo Ledesma, David Castor who helped us to choose the good seedlings) and NIRD (June, Edwin, Ronnie and Vitri) were a great source of advices.

I cannot forget to thank Brenda Benedicto, Barangay Captain of Luna and her team of Kagawads always solving the little problems of everyday with a great smile.

Andry Lim and Jojie Lim, please, receive all my gratitude for your teaching in Natural Farming since a long time! I don’t forget also many members of the group of natural farming of the Philippines (natural_farming_philippines@yahoogroups.com) who encouraged me to continue this project.

Of course, I’m grateful to some members of the staff and volunteers of Virlanie in Manila and in France who brought their energy, ideas and knowledge to build stone by stone the project. Bernard Leveaux, also former Executive Director, sustained during many months this beautiful idea of school farm of Sagay. Atty Anne Maria Palermo was a great help during thebegining of implementation in Negros.

It is also clear that without our team of 3 farmers and friends, Ricky, Ronnie and Rene, no idea on the paper was transformed in the field. They changed the landscape and increased the yields of harvests with a great courage, with their sweat and sometimes with their blood.

My dear wife, Mechelle, was of course a constant help and source of reflection and her green hands gave life to many seeds.

And to finish, I’m thankful to Mother Nature who rewarded us, showing clearly that it is better to work with her than against.

I will soon give news of what we will do now about natural farming in another place of the Philippines but this is another story...

Long life to Natural Farming!

Step 19: About the pest management

Some farmers asked me what sort of organic insecticides we use to control the rice pests in the natural farming protocol.

First we have to remember that even if it is organic, an insecticide can kill all the insects and can break cycles exactly like a chemical insecticide. So we have to choose at least selective organic insecticide and reject any kind of product which kills useful insects as bees and predators of other insects like dragon flies. When we decide to use a new product, test must be done to check the specificity of the product.

Better than insecticide, repellent can help to control pests without killing any form of life. Always remember any animal has his place in the cycle of life even if he likes to eat the same thing as the farmer! We must accept and give a part of our crop to the members of the crop system because, all in all, we have more advantage to let the nature organize the number and the type of animals in a place than to destroy one and break the fragile balance. It is when our place in unbalanced that one species can overgrow and become a danger for the farmer. In that case, he must be very prudent and try to control, if possible, the situation.

The second remark is to anticipate, especially with repellant, and not wait to be invaded by a pest. That is why a planning of treatment starting at the good period can help to control the extension of some pest.

Last remark: we have been lucky this time with this protocol in that place. It doesn’t mean it will work for the next crop or in another place. Only a frequent, regular and attentive inspection of the crop allows to react enough early to avoid an invasion. Imagination and adaptation of the farmer is also requested.

Our protocol includes the classical attractant made with 1 gallon of coconut vinegar boiled with ½ kg of molasses. When it is cold we add 1/3 of liter of FPG. We hang at 1.50 m plastic bottles with 2 windows and containing the attractant. We replace the solution every 2 weeks. This attractant is particularly efficient against rice borers because it catch the moths.

The second action is a weekly spraying of mixing of plant extracts from 2 to 3 weeks after sowing to 1 week before harvest. The recipe is very well described in the website of OISAT, http://www.oisat.org

The pictures here under show the different steps. Depending of the extraction, the quantity is good for 1 ha of rice (6 L extracts, 6 sprayers 20L).

10 kg Kakawate (Madre de Cacao, Gliricidia sepium). I take only the leaves and cut them with scissors and stock in a plastic trash bin with a large mosquito net.

2 kg of Makabuhay (Tinospora)

The makabuhay is pound and cut.

Four cups of hot pepper are blendered.

The 3 ingredients are mixed with a total of 8 liters of water and pressed to the bottom of the trash bin

After 24h incubation, the extract is collected by pressing.

The extract is filtered.

The 3 other ingredients are alcohol (2 TBS or 30 ml), coconut milk (6 glasses or 1.5 liter) and grated soap “blue perla” (2 TBS) as sticker.

Addition of alcohol.

Addition of soap.

Addition of coconut milk.

Stir thoroughly.

Filling of the bottles.

Spray every week early morning or late evening. Wear a mask because chili is irritating and take care of the wind.

Step 18: Natural farming: It works!

We can now give the yield of our first trial of rice production using full natural farming protocol and drum seeder ofPhilrice: 106 cavans (40 kg) of palay after threshering.

This result has to be compared to the 35 cavans of the former conventional farmer one year ago. He was using a little chemical fertilizer because he could not afford the recommended quantities. Despite insecticide sprayings his rice beds were attacked by pests. We didn’t use one gram of any chemical and spend a very few money to prepare the concoctions. The main cost was the vermicompost because we cannot prepare it now in the farm and of course the labor because we are not in a family farming structure.

This good result can not only be attributed to the strict spraying program of natural farming with LCC control but also to other natural farming techniques including:
- Choice of good hybrid variety,
- Leveling of the bed with a tolerance of more or less 2 cm,
- Application of different management techniques:
# Direct wet seeding with drum seeder at rate 40 kg/ha,
# Manual and roto-weeding,
# Trap for rats,
# Lure for birds,
# Hand picking, small canals and bamboo sticks to get eggs for snails,
# Selective attractant for insects especially moths of rice borers,
# Weekly spraying of rice pest repellant (Kakawate/Makabuhay/chili).

Our quest of increasing of production is not finished. The points we have now to improve are:
- Better water management with alternate of drying and watering beds and respect of depth of water according to the age of the crop. This will be possible with a large source of water coming from the future wind mill.
- More quantity of organic matter,
- Use of rototiller to mix more rapidly remaining of last crop with the soil. We spend too much time and manpower in land preparation between two crops.
- Work on the use and quality of seaweed concoction to provide more vegetal hormones.
We must also keep in mind that it is also possible the season has been particularly favorable to the raising of rice. It is impossible to attribute to each parameter a percent of effect on the final result.

Step 17: "Do you want a little more rice?"

Different varieties of rice were tried during the last months: AG-5, Jasmine rice, black rice and RC-18. Transplantation 25x25 was the only technique used. We also compared the results of different types of farming. The former farmer used chemical fertilizers.

For our first trial, we spread only vermicompost (equivalent 1T/ha) and for the last trials, we applied all the natural farming protocol (see step 13). From far, the natural farming protocol gave us the best results with the RC-18 variety.

The best result of the former farmer with chemical fertilizers (probably very low quantity) was 35 cavans or 1400 kg/ha.

Our best result with AG5 and only vermicompost was 16.5 cavans or 660 kg/ha which is very low.

Our best results with RC-18 and for the first time natural farming protocol was 45.5 cavans or 1820 kg/ha. During the threshering, Department of Agriculture judged this rice bigger, shinier and better quality.

Because too much parameters are different (varieties, season, place, adverse conditions and pests), we cannot conclude the production has been multiplied by 3. But it is reasonable to say the natural farming protocol has a positive effect on the yield.

Of course we are still far from the result of intensive practices and also far from our target of 100 cavans or 4000 kg/ha. We expect this result in 2011 or 2012 after 3 years of rehabilitation of the soil and general improvement of our protocol.

Trials of Jasmine rice and black rice gave very poor results because of Tungro (virus disease) rat and mole crickets.

WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS?

- We observed the consequences of a bad leveling: it disturbs the management of water and increases the damages by some pests like snails or mole crickets. The beds for the next plantations have been reshaped to be as flat as possible with manual technique.

- Transplanting of one seedling 25x25 cm has limitation from “resistance” of workers how want to “secure” their work (transplant of 6 to 8 seedlings per hill and step by step reduction of the distance) to bigger consequences of

destruction by pests if the number of transplants is only one.

Direct wet sowing is another solution but the management of weeds is not so easy. If we want to use rotoweeder to facilitate the weed management, the drum seeder of Philrice is a great choice and we are very happy of this investment (6000 P) which became an important improvement.

By the way we reduce drastically the cost of production because the work of 8 transplanters during 3 hours is made by one worker with the drum seeder in 5 minutes. In our last trial we sowed 2125 m² in 4 hours with one people It needed equivalent of 80 kg of germinated rice/ha but we can probably reduce to 40 kg. 2 other people were also required to refill the drum seeder and manually sow the places not accessible with drum seeder because of the shape of some beds. There is only one risk with this technique: it is better to have no big rain during 3 days to avoid the disturbance of the rows before rooting.

- We also follow the nitrogen status of the rice plant with the LCC (Leaf Color Chart) of Philrice. Until now we did not have to increase the quantity of FAA (Fish Amino Acid, source of nitrogen) because the test showed good results.

We spoke a lot of Philrice in this step. It is interesting to notice the Philrice evolution. In its publication of July to September 2008 (vol.21 No.3) we can read: "Is it possible to go to purely organic? Rice science experts say it is possible, with proper transition. Before going purely organic, though, farmers must first know where to get the materials they need." Hopefully, with natural farming, we know all we need is around us!

Step 16: First students for a work camp

From 5th to 12th of May 2009, the Virlanie School Farm of Sagay received 6 young adults from Virlanie Manila and 2 young farmers from Luna, Sagay. School levels was from grade 2 to college, the age from 16 to 24 years old and the knowledge in English sometimes limited. Not easy for the teacher! but with the help of translators, we rapidly found a way to understand us. As we have not yet facilities in the farm, they were lodged in Kauswagan Sagay City and the Barangay of Luna offered the lunches and a classroom in the elementary school. Virlanie and I are very grateful to the Captain Barangay Brenda Benedicto for her generous help and assistance.

The non-stop 8 days program was organized with theoretical formation during the morning and practical

activities on the field or visits during the afternoon. The order was: "Open your eyes, open your brain, open your heart and you will find the answers!"

After the discovery of the farm, the program covered the soil, its structure and its life and how to improve it,

the

laws of the nature, an introduction to the

natural farming, and the profit in the farm through the

processing of the raw products.

About practical activities, they experimented some basic test to know the soil, the jam processing and plantation of trees.

Different visits and meetings was also organised: meeting

with sugar cane

workers, and with Ronnie Doitay, a natural

farmer installed in the South of Sagay. The

visits were in

the farm of

Sagay(vermicompost,

piggery, diary farm, and organic garden), the Sugar Mill of Sagay central. For the Sunday a special game was organized around the adverse conditions, the

adaptation of plants and the use of the mangrove.

Four teams of two students were formed and each team

received at the beginning of the

training course a subject to study and to present at the end

of

the work camp. Each

subject was an agriculture processing (Jatropha soap,

Mulberry and silk worms, Rice wine and lemon grass oil). With dall the information received during the lectures, the practical

activities, various reading materials, the visits and the meetings, they have the elements to answer to three questions:

- Can I grow this plant in that place?

- Can I manage the processing?

- Can I sell the final product?

These questions are finally the questions good for every

farmers who choose the way of the future,

I mean: the

agribusiness.

Each student received a certificate of participation to this first teaching experience in the future Virlanie School Farm of Sagay. Most of them wish to come

back in Luna when the

school will open.

Step 15: "Of mice and men"

According to CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), "it is not uncommon for families or villages in South-East Asia to lose more than 50 per cent of their crop to rats." We experienced during our first trial of rice plantation problems with mice and rats in the nursery and in the rice field.

In the nursery, we lost young seedlings after their not friendly visits.

The use of chinese model trap was efficient but not enough to protect the basins of seedlings. The most efficient bait was slice of wheat loaf bread: 5 rats in 4 nights.

We had to isolate the basins with sheets of metal and these two counter measures solved the problem in the nursery.

In the rice field we observed very fast destruction of rice estimated to 20% of the production. We decided to harvest 2 to 3 days in advance to limit the increasing of the destruction.

We decided to start a low cost rat control in the rice field to avoid, if possible, so big destruction in the future. According to rat specialists, March and September are the best months to capture the rats but it is necessary to catch 70% of the population to begin to have an effect on the level of destruction. So, no time to waste!

Our tested low-cost technique, coming from India, needs a pail, a strong plain wire, some cobs of mais and peanut butter.

First step is to locate the rats house near the banks of the rice fields.

Then we dig a hole to install a pail, opening at the level of the soil. The pail is filled 1/3 with water.

A cob of mais is drilled and must turn freely on the wire. The wire is bent 90° each side and driven in the soil. The cob is covered with peanut butter to attract the rat. The rats are supposed to fall in the bucket.

Replant around to give a more natural aspect.

 After two days, we catched only frogs! Some corn ears are also eaten probably by wise rats. The hunter must be patient...

Step 14: About insecticides...

The use of chemical insecticides is prohibited to natural farmer. But what about organic insecticides? These two words together means "we will kill insects but with an organic product which will be destroyed rapidly in the nature and it will not be toxic for the humans." As with any insecticide the problem is the "S" at the end of the word "insects". This short picture story will illustrate that other solutions are possible than directly use insecticide.

 Organic insecticides should be used only when all other solutions are inefficient or unknown.

  We planted a few month ago some Sesbania as windbreak. 

 Very soon, we observed that the leaves of Sesbania was the favorite food of a caterpillar, probably a Pieris sp, same family we can find eating the cabbage.

This caterpillar is exactly the same color as the leave of Sesbania and when it takes a rest on a leave it is not so easy to see it. Our first counter measure was hand-picking. Not so efficient as we can see on the picture of the tree!

But one day, we discovered a sort of golden shield bug, sucking directly the caterpillar. And now our Sesbania are recovering and new leaves appear. The predator controls the pest and kills only the pest, not all the insectS.

 The lessons of this are:

- The nature can solve any problem and there is always "something" to regulate any excess (we have to think about that regarding the species Homo sapiens...)

- If I used an insecticide, even organic, I killed the caterpillar and the bug. I bet that a few weeks after the caterpillar reappears but not the bug, because predators are less numerous than preys.

- Different scenarios are now possible, for example:

   #1 The bugs feed on caterpillars and multiply so much that the caterpillars disappear but soon after the bugs will also disappear (or find another prey).

   #2 The bugs are not enough and the caterpillars continue to feed on the Sesbania.

   #3 The caterpillars eat too much the Sesbania and desappear because no more food. The bugs disappear just after.

 In fact, if we do nothing to interfere with the nature, 3 sinusoidal curves of populations, - one for each actor, the Sesbania, the caterpillar and the bug - will establish and act as feedback for the 2 others: The Sesbania is growing and when there is enough leaves, the caterpillars have food (in fact the butterfly lays its eggs), can thrive and continue there own life cycle. With a little delay the bugs appear and control the population of caterpillars. If they are too much guzzler, they kill themselves!

 Always work with the nature, not again!