Rice production in Eastern Samar: is there a bright future?

By Luz Geneston Asio, PhD

Department of Agronomy, VSU, Baybay City, Leyte

Eastern Samar has been consistently ranked as one of the poorest provinces in the country (www.faq.ph). A major reason for this is the low agricultural productivity due to several reasons: frequent typhoons, lack of government support, lack of political will, old farming methods, and many others.

During our one-week fieldwork in the province this July, we traveled to interior barangays, observed crop production practices and technologies interviewed farmers and technicians to get a picture of the real reasons for the low rice productivity of the province.

A poor rice farmer in San Jose village in Borongan City

Very striking across most of Eastern Samar is the widespread occurrence of uncultivated or only partly cultivated alluvial lands particularly near river systems. Such lands generally have great potential for intensive and highly productive rice production due to their generally flat topography. But most areas are idle and covered with Cyperus sedge and other grasses due to the lack of any irrigation system to supply the fields with sufficient water. Our field observations indicate that enough water lies beneath the land surface but nothing is done to tap it (e.g. deep wells) to support rice production.

An idle former rice land in Dolores, Eastern Samar

Only partly cultivated alluvial plain in San Julian, Eastern Samar

In many areas, we observed that farmers are planting modern rice varieties but are managed in the traditional way. For example, the modern rice varieties need proper spacing to grow well but most farmers are still practicing random planting without proper spacing. Farmers also complained that they received seeds and a small amount of fertilizers from the Department of Agriculture only once. It did not help them improve their production.

Modern rice variety planted at random (without proper spacing)

Shortly after planting, the soil dries up due to the absence of an irrigation system

Modern rice varieties are high yielding. Meaning, they are capable of producing high grain yields but they need high amounts of nutrients from the soil for them to attain their yield potential. Unfortunately, most farmers do not apply fertilizers or apply only insufficient amounts of fertilizers. The explanation by some agricultural technicians that the modern varieties need fewer fertilizers than the traditional varieties is simply not correct.

A farmer in Sulat harvesting his rice (he uses coconut leaves to protect him from the sun)

Quinapundan in the south is the only municipality where rice production appears to be very productive. The municipality possesses a large alluvial plain which is used for intensive rice production. The major reason is the availability of a functional irrigation system which allows farmers to plant two or more croppings of rice a year. We wonder why the local government in this municipality has been very successful in its rice production program but not Borongan, San Julian, Sulat, Taft, Can-avid, Dolores and the other municipalities which have wide areas of alluvial plains which are generally suitable for lowland rice production.

Intensive rice cultivation in Quinapundan, Eastern Samar

The prediction of one high ranking government official who was interviewed on local TV that Eastern Samar will attain rice self-sufficiency in the next five years is not attainable. Not unless of course the politicians will do something drastic to solve the real causes of low rice productivity in the province. 

Just imagine how many tons of rice will be produced once these large idle lands throughout the province will be made productive through a functional irrigation system, proper fertilization, high yielding varieties, and other modern farming methods. Unfortunately, for Eastehanons this is not the priority of the politicians. Thus, we can safely assume that Eastern Samar will continue to be one of the poorest provinces. The future of rice production in the province may not be bright at all.

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All photos were taken and are owned by the author.

The arsenic contamination in rice

Arsenic (As) is a heavy metal that is well-known as a poison and a carcinogen. Its average concentration in the soil ranges from 5 to 6 mg/kg which is generally related to rock type and industrial activity.

Arsenic contamination of paddy soils is widespread and elevated arsenic levels in rice grains is now a hot issue in many parts of the world. Martha Rose Shulman wrote in the New York Times (15 April 2013) that “it is clear that the levels of inorganic arsenic in rice and rice products are high, and that we and especially children, babies and pregnant women should limit our intake of rice and rice products.”

According to Bogdan and Schenk (2012) in their recent study published in the highly respected Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science (Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH), flooded rice may contain high arsenic concentration compared to other grain crops. In fact, aside from arsenic-contaminated drinking water, rice is the largest food dietary source of inorganic arsenic. This is because the reducing environment in flooded rice fields causes the dissolution of arsenic and thus increases its availability to the rice plant. Meharg (2004) added that under paddy field conditions, inorganic arsenic introduced into the soil is inter-converted between the reduced inorganic species arsenite (the dominant type) and the oxidized species arsenate. Moreover, arsenite is taken up into the root by the highly efficient Si pathway and arsenate can be taken up via the phosphate transport system.

Bogdan and Schenk (2012) observed among other things that continuous arsenic supply in the soil resulted in a doubling of arsenic concentration in rice shoot and grains. They also found that arsenic was mobilized from the root and shoot to the rice grains where it accumulated.

References
Bogdan K. and M.K. Schenk. 2012. Arsenic mobilization in rice (Oryza sativa) and its accumulation in the grains. J. Plant Nutr. Soil Sci. 175: 135-141.
Meharg A.A. 2004. Arsenic in rice-understanding a new disaster for South-East Asia. Trends in Plant Science 9: 415-417.