Waging a different kind of war

Text and Photos By Henrylito D. Tacio
“We are part of God’s creation, and God gave it to us to take care of it. And we’ve done a pretty lousy job. Our land is sick and part of our Christian responsibility is to heal it.” — Harold Ray Watson, 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee
In the hinterlands of southern Mindanao, a non-government organization is waging a different kind of war. It’s a war that does not involve fighting but rather stopping the unseen enemy from totally grabbing the land that has been handed from one generation to another.
It’s an unseen enemy because it happens every time there’s rain, flood and winds. Although everyone sees it happening, no one seems to notice it. Soil erosion is the nemesis. It scraps land of its topsoil, the primary resource in food production.
“Soil erosion is an enemy to any nation — far worse than any external enemy coming into a country and conquering it because it’s an enemy you cannot see vividly,” Harold R. Watson told the audience when he received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1985 for peace and international understanding. “It’s a slow creeping enemy that soon possesses the land.”
Watson is now retired; he is back in his birthplace — in Mississippi, United States. For almost half of his life, he tried to find some methods to solve the erosion problem by innovating some technologies in the rolling foothills of Mount Apo. Here, he founded the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) in Kinuskusan, a barangay some 10 kilometers away from the town of Bansalan in Davao del Sur.
Watson, an agriculturist by profession, said that soil erosion is likely to imperil the country’s food production in the coming years. “Land is not being remade,” he pointed out. “Soil is made by God and put here for man to use, not for one generation but forever.”
According to Watson, “it takes thousands of years to build one inch of topsoil but only one god strong rain to remove one inch from unprotected soil on the slopes of mountains.” As such, soil erosion should be given a top priority. “We must consider ourselves in a state of emergency,” he said in his speech. “Our topsoil is all going…”
In his book, The Nature and Properties of Soils, Nyle C. Brady wrote: “No other soil phenomenon is more destructive worldwide than soil erosion. It involves losing water and plant nutrients at rates far higher than those occurring through leaching. More tragically, however, it can result in the loss of the entire soil.
“Furthermore, the soil that is removed finds its way into streams, rivers, and lakes and become a pollution problem there. Erosion is serious in all climates, since wind as well as water can be the agent of removal,” Brady added.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated some 25 billion tons of soil being washed into the rivers each year. In drier areas, the topsoil is being blown away. All in all, the world is losing an equivalent of 5-7 million hectares of farmland each year. To correct the problem would cost US$250,000,000,000. “The alternative,” if the problem is not solved, “is famine,” FAO said.
The Philippines is not spared from the problem. In 1988, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources came up with a list of provinces which had “alarming” soil erosion rate. Batangas and Cebu topped the list with 80-85 percent of their topsoil already lost to erosion.
Marinduque had 75-80 percent soil erosion while Ilocos Sur and La Union had 60-70 percent. The following had more than 50 percent soil erosion: Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao del Norte, North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Aklan, Capiz, and Antique.
Lester R. Brown and Edward C. Wolf, authors of Soil Erosion: Quiet Crisis in the World Economy, explain that soil erosion affects crop production in two ways. “The loss of topsoil reduces the inherent productivity of land, both through the loss of nutrients and degradation of the physical structure. It also increases the costs of food production,” they wrote.
“When farmers lose topsoil,” the two authors further explain, “they may increase land productivity by substituting energy in the form of fertilizer. Hence, farmers losing topsoil may experience either a loss in land productivity or a rise in costs of agricultural inputs. And if productivity drops too low or agricultural costs rise too high, farmers are forced to abandon their land.”
But there are some ways to arrest soil erosion. At the MBRLC, the solution is found in its SALT or Sloping Agricultural Land Technology. Just like the prophet David defeated giant Goliath with just a sling shot and a stone, erosion can be solved by going back to the basics. “We don’t need modern technologies and high gadgets to defeat the enemy. All we have to do is use what God has provided us through the years,” says Roy C. Alimoane, the current MBRLC director.
“Basically, the SALT method involves planting of field and permanent crops in 4-5 meter bands between double-controlled rows of nitrogen fixing trees and shrubs,” explains Alimoane.
Examples of field crops are the legumes (beans, peas, and pulses), cereals (upland rice, corn, and sorghum), root crops (sweet potato, cassava, carrot, and taro), and vegetables (cabbage, ampalaya, tomato, eggplant, etc.). Permanent crops include cacao, coffee, banana, citrus, and fruit trees.
This is where food security comes in. “Most farmers are locked into one crop,” Alimoane points out. “When the crop is harvested, he has much money, but it is soon gone, and he has overspent. He’s called a millionaire for one day.”
With SALT, a farmer can harvest every now and then. “He has something to look for,” Alimoane says. “Because the harvested crops are just enough for the market, there is a tendency that the price of his produce is much higher.”
Organic farming is practiced in the SALT scheme. Double hedgerows of leguminous perennials are planted at 4-5 meters intervals on equal-elevation contours. The hedgerows are pruned frequently (every 5-6 weeks) and the cuttings are applied to the crops as source of fertilizer. The cuttings also served as mulching materials.
In the SALT farm, you find a mix of permanent crops, cereals, and vegetables. Every third strip of available land is normally devoted to permanent crops. A combination of various cereals and vegetables are planted on the remaining two strips of land. Each has its own specific area so that there can be a seasonal rotation.
“Crop rotation helps to preserve the regenerative properties of the soil and avoid the problems of infertility typical of traditional agricultural practices,” explains Alimoane on the importance of regular rotation of crops.
The principle of SALT is the same as that used by the Ifugao tribes 300 years ago. “All we are doing is suggesting using nitrogen fixing trees and shrubs instead of rocks,” Alimoane points out.
Examples of nitrogen fixing trees and shrubs include “ipil-ipil” (Leucaena leucocephala) and “madre de cacao” (Gliricidia sepium). Introduced species like Desmodium rensonii, Flemingia macrophylla, and Indifogera anil are also good hedgerow materials. “We recommend that a combination of these species be planted all over the SALT farm,” Alimoane suggests.
Yes, SALT can help control soil erosion. A seven-year study conducted at the MBRLC showed that a farm tilled in the traditional manner erodes at the rate of 1,163.4 metric tons per hectare per year. In comparison, a SALT farm erodes at the rate of only 20.2 metric tons per hectare per year.
The rate of soil loss in a SALT farm is 3.4 metric tons per hectare per year, which is within the tolerable range. Most soil scientists place acceptable soil loss limits for tropical countries like the Philippines within the range of 10-12 metric tons per hectare per year. The non-SALT farm has an annual soil loss rate of 194.3 metric tons per hectare.
As SALT is an example of agroforestry (a collective name for all land-use systems and practices where woody perennials and crops are planted together), it offers other valuable ecological advantages.
“SALT greatly reduces the risk of drought, landslides, floods, the silting over of low-lying areas, and wind erosion — all of which are linked to the radical transformation of the natural environment and the destruction of the mountain forests,” Alimoane says.
Brown, the environmental guru who received several awards for his work, believes the immediate effects of soil erosion are economic but in the long run its ultimate effects are social.
“When soils are depleted and crops are poorly nourished, people are often undernourished as well,” Brown points out. “Failure to respond to the erosion threat will lead not only to the degradation of land, but to the degradation of life itself.”