Farmer-attendees to the ABD project-initiated seed fair in 2018 looking over some of the traditional rice varieties being showcased at the event.

Rice may be the staple food in the Philippines, but its production is vulnerable to weather changes. Climate change has significantly affected farmers: as a crop that is heavily dependent on water, its yields drop significantly in case of droughts, which in turn lead to lower incomes for farmers. Hingyon, a municipality in Ifugao, is not spared from the effects of drought, despite being one of the main producers of the famed heirloom rice in the province. Climate change resilience is one of the areas that the “Dynamic Conservation and Sustainable Use of Agro-Biodiversity in Traditional Agro-Ecosystems of the Philippines” project (ABD), implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Department of Agriculture – Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR), hopes to support, in partnership with local stakeholders.

In 2018, the ABD project hosted the first rice diversity fair in the Philippines in Banaue, Ifugao. One of the participants of the event was Ben Dulnuan, a farmer from Hingyon, who acquired some samples of Oklan and Haggaga rice varieties from Hungduan, for planting in Barangay Mompolia. The village has no creek and has limited water sources, particularly in the elevated areas, which have no irrigation systems. Droughts can lead to a huge drop in rice yield.

According to Dulnuan, he got samples of the traditional rice varieties (TRVs) as planting material because he knew that these two are drought-resistant. “We were motivated to get some of the seeds from Hungduan during the seed fair because these varieties are resistant to drought during the tillering stage in March and April,” he said.

In his first year of planting the two varieties, Dulnuan experimented and planted different TRVs in each of the four rice fields he is a tenant of. Besides Oklan and Haggaga, he also planted Hinglu and Innabin, two TRVs in Hingyon. Despite the drought from April to June, there was more yield from the fields planted with Haggaga and Oklan at 87 and 124 bundles, respectively, when compared to Hinglu and Innabin at 83 and 76 bundles, respectively.

“We noticed that Haggaga and Oklan have higher numbers of harvest base from the four varieties,” said Dulnuan. “Both of these varieties adopted [to] the climate in Mompolia.” He also said that the two varieties from Hungduan required less labor and were less prone to pest infestations.

The experiences of Dulnuan and the other farmers who experimented in planting Haggaga and Oklan have influenced the other farmers in Mompolia to plant these TRVs in their own fields. “Most of us here are now planting Haggaga and Oklan due to their adaptability to the climate in Mompolia,” Dulnuan said. “Haggaga is now widely known by the other farmers in other sitios in Mompolia after being seen by those who came during the harvest, and in some other neighboring rice fields.” 

A full shift from the original Hingyon TRVs to Haggaga and Oklan is not advisable, however. “For the second year of harvest, [crop field] declined to almost 30% as compared to the harvest of last year,” Dulnuan said. He said that alternating planting both varieties may address this issue. Climate change can wreak havoc on the agriculture sector, devastating farmers’ production and income. However, their indigenous knowledge, coupled with some assistance, will allow them to innovate and adapt to these external factors.