After being hit by six consecutive typhoons in 2024, discolored palay grains are prominently laid out and dried under the sun in Canaman, Camarines Sur.
“When a typhoon hits, we barely have any income because our rice yield rots. Like now, a lot of it is rotten. More than a hectare was ruined,” Frankie E. Bolocon lamented.
According to the farmers, no rice traders would buy these rice grains anymore, not even at a low price.
Meanwhile, Evelyn V. Aguila, 59, was confident that she would achieve a bountiful harvest. For months, she managed her crops using modern farming practices and technologies she had freshly acquired through a training she earnestly attended. Yet, Typhoon Kristine struck.
“Our rice was growing so well, but the flooding [because of the typhoon] ruined it, so we only harvested 450kg,” she regretted.
These two scenarios aren’t new to thousands of Filipino rice farmers since typhoons can easily wipe out three months’ worth of hard work.
But this alone isn’t their worst nightmare.
Rubbing salt to the wound
Bolocon and Aguila both attested that aside from the typhoons during the rainy season, one of their strongest dilemmas was the saltwater intrusion into their rice fields during the dry season, which negatively impacts their crops.
“The rice crop dies when saltwater enters the fields. When the rice needs water [to flush out saltwater during the dry season], we have nowhere to get it from, so our harvest weakens,” Aguila explained.
Residents explained that once saline water intrudes into their fields, the leaves turn yellowish. Since they depend on rainfall as their main source of water, they couldn’t just flush it off their land. This scenario is exacerbated, especially during high tide and the dry season, when rain is elusive.
According to Rudy D. Nunez, a barangay councilor and a member of their agricultural committee, 75% of the rice fields in Canaman suffer from saltwater intrusion.
“If it doesn’t rain even for just a month, the Bicol River will already turn salty, and we can’t use it anymore [for our crops]. When the sea is at high tide, the saltwater comes in here, causing the Bicol River to rise. That means we lose our supply of freshwater,” Nunez complained.
Based on data, the Philippines has an estimated coastal saline-prone area of 500,000–600,000 hectares, of which 200,000 hectares are considered seriously salt-affected soils.
Evading the worst-case scenario
To avoid this, they have to meticulously master the art of timing. “When the water is salty, we avoid planting crops yet because the crops will be ruined. Just look at other farmers. Once the water becomes salty, no one’s planting anything yet,” Bolocon pointed.
He added that there were visible signs when the water turned salty. They noticed that the water sparkled at night, reflecting the moonlight—an indication of salinity—particularly in the river that one must cross to reach their barangay.
“Similarly, plants living on the water surface, like water lilies, also die when the water is salty,” he added.
Rainfall data also has to be monitored, and patterns, such as during high tide and low tide, should be properly observed to accurately foresee the right timing for planting.
“During the full moon, saltwater enters their fields, so they have to wait until the moon’s face changes. If high tide coincides with heavy rain, then it’s over,” the barangay councilor explained.
Saline-resilient rice variety
Even though this has been their situation since the 1950s, Nunez, who only started farming in 2018, still pursued rice farming because he witnessed the interventions and solutions being offered to help their community, giving them hope.
Starting in 2022, PhilRice Bicol expanded its Scaling Integrated Crop Management Project for saline sites to the Bicol region through the establishment of a community-based demonstration field.
Through this, the rice farmers learned that using salt-tolerant rice varieties like NSIC Rc 480 could help them alleviate the effects of saline intrusion on their crops.
Deo Bonifacio E. Pestio, a researcher from PhilRice Bicol, emphasized that even when using a saline-resilient variety, you should still not use saltwater to water or irrigate the rice crops.
“The crops will die because they can’t tolerate the salinity. Even if they are a saline-resistant variety, if the salt concentration is too high, no plant will survive. It would still be better if they had a freshwater source to flush out the saltwater that enters their fields,” Pestio explained.
If the level of salinity in the water is measured using an electrical conductivity (EC) meter, a level of 4–8 deciSiemens per meter (dS/m) could still be tolerated by the variety. Beyond this, the crop would start showing symptoms of stress, including leaves that look burned, rotten, and yellowish.
However, if one used a non-saline-tolerant variety, it wouldn’t survive in that kind of environment. It could only live with a maximum of 2dS/m. In short, saline-tolerant varieties like NSIC Rc 480 have a much higher tolerance than their opposites.
Aside from this, they also learned to use the drum seeder and followed the 40kg/ha seeding rate recommendation.
“I learned not to spray pesticides immediately because some insects are not pests; rather, they are friendly organisms beneficial to our crops,” Aguila recited.
In addition, the training equipped them through a series of lectures, demonstrations, and practical activities based on the PalayCheck.
ICT-based tools on rice, pests and diseases, and salt management for rice production were also introduced through knowledge sharing and-learning activities.
Nunez’s hard work paid off when, fortunately, he escaped Typhoon Kristine by planting earlier than usual, which resulted in a harvest of 6.5t of palay, almost double his previous yield of 3.6t.
Moving forward
While some rice farmers in different regions of the Philippines face the wrath of typhoons, pests, diseases, and rising costs of farming inputs such as fertilizers, farmers in Canaman also have to endure the pain of a saline-prone environment.
Nevertheless, rice farming is a way of life for Bolocon and Aguila, and they will continue to do so, hoping that next cropping season, an abundant harvest will finally be in their favor.
