Today, Inquirer
lady reporter Krixia Subingsubing takes
me up the mountains of Northern Luzon to Sagada,
famous for its hanging coffins, and tells me this story: “Sagada Farmers Return
To Their Roots”
(newsinfo.inquirer.net,
image from Inquirer). “Return to
their roots?” – To me, a son of a farmer in Pangasinan, this is a pleasant
surprise!
Actually, by
“roots” Ms Krixia means this:
“In (this) Mountain
Province town, women villagers relearn traditional way(s) of growing crops as
impact of changing climate alters agriculture cycle.” Nota Bene: “relearn traditional ways of growing crops.” So, today,
“in Bangaan, a small village in this tourist town, vegetables and coffee grow
among clouds.”
“This is what has
sustained the town generation after generation,” says Danelia Toyoken, one of the farmers in Bangaan. Sagada is
home to mostly Igorot, the
collective term for indigenous peoples in the Cordillera which means “people
from the mountains.”
“But in recent
years, a mercurial climate and a soil made acidic by commercial-grade
pesticides have made farming and gardening almost like gambling … What used to
be a predictable science became unreliable,” Ms Toyoken says.
I say, as a UPLB
aggie graduate, “Chemical farming is science that has outlived its usefulness!”
Ms Toyoken and other women of Bangaan “took upon
ourselves to return the richness of the mountain soil” by bringing back organic
farming – without chemicals, without pesticides.”
Says Ms Krixia, “They
are not alone. Across Sagada, women are increasingly at the forefront of
efforts toward sustainable farming and environmental conservation.”
I say as a UPLB
agriculturist: “If the men don’t re-learn by themselves, the women should
teach!”
“Ms Toyoken and other women of Bangaan ‘took upon
ourselves to return the richness of the mountain soil by bringing back organic
farming – without chemicals, without pesticides.’”
I now
ask, as a graduate of the premier learning school for agriculture in the Philippines:
UP Los Baños, what are you doing?!
UPLB people, as
you twiddle your thumbs in lowland Los Baños, Laguna, Ms Krixia says: “Across
Sagada, women are increasingly at the forefront of efforts toward sustainable
farming and environmental conservation.” No thanks to any nearby or faraway
college or university of agriculture!
Hurray for Sagada women!
“As in most parts
of the world, indigenous peoples, especially women, bear the responsibility of
protecting the environment and preserving our practices,” says Gwendolyn Gaongen, a member of the
council of elders on ‘batangan’ (forest management) system).”
UPLB and I, we
have more to learn from up the mountains of Sagada!
“It is all the
more important to empower and capacitate them [to] harness their contributions,”
Ms Gwendolyn says, adding that “these efforts are rooted in the tribe’s
“inviolable relationship” with the expanse of land – about 10,000 hectares of
it — that is Sagada.”@517
