Hope for farmers: Climate-smart rice revives idle lands in Zamboanga

Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines – Rice that grow well in salty areas give idle lands near the sea an unlikely facelift. These areas can become productive croplands for salt-tolerant rice.

Salt seeps into lands because of over extraction of groundwater and rise in sea level.

Today, climate impacts are heavily felt in Zamboanga as farm lands are devastated by drought or become flooded with saltwater. These put food security and livelihood at risk.

Felipe Pablo who farms shrimp, milkfish, and crab at Sitio Sulabot experienced these challenges for himself. Business was good until disease outbreaks killed off his shrimp.

Since then, a big portion of his 100 hectare fish farm has been empty and more than a million pesos had been lost. Next to his pond, a 2,000 square meter farm land lies unproductive because saltwater had soaked in the soil.

“The shrimp were dying off from the first month after seeding,” Dablo said.

Kumalarang has seen the increase of idle fish ponds due to chronic diseases. At the same time, rice farms have been abandoned due to the impact of climate change like drought and saltwater intrusion.

According to Kumalarang municipal agriculturist Corazon Gomonit, at least 800 hectares of lands have become unproductive because of these.

In November 2015, Gomonit and Dablo received a kilogram of Salinas 16, a type of rice that survives in salty soil.

An ADB and GEF-funded project, Coastal and Marine Resources Management in the Coral Triangle - Southeast Asia (CTI-SEA) brought the samples from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) for testing. In three months, Dablo harvested four sacks or 280 kilograms of Salinas rice from salt-laden soil where traditional rice varieties will not grow.

“I saw for myself how the rice grew from unusable soil,” said Dablo.

To help deal with the enormous loss caused by drought, Katihan, a high-yield variety that thrives well in dry areas is also being pilot-tested. Gomonit and Dablo are optimistic about the results of the field trials.

“I think that it will help many Filipino farmers in Mindanao,” said Dablo.

Many farmers hope for rain to come to revive farm lands affected by drought.

A month after cloud seeding operations failed and losing P1.3 M in the process, Zamboanga was declared under a state of calamity last April.

Rice varieties that survive in flooded, drought-stricken, or in salt-affected farmlands may be one of the solutions for communities most affected by climate change, especially when it comes to producing food.

“Projecting future climate is not perfect.  But we cannot wait for science to be completely certain of things to come before we take actions,” said climate change expert Rosa Perez.

Perez said it might take a while before people realize that coastal flooding due to sea level rise is happening.

On the other hand, saltwater intrusion can occur more quickly than we thought.

These changes may have come faster than earlier climate projections. Thus, countries are looking into practical and sustainable ways to cope with their harmful impacts in the short term and to adapt and avoid them in the long term.

“Coastal agriculture, particularly rice production could be severely affected. Before we totally abandon the fields, we can shift to appropriate rice varieties. This would be a good immediate action to take to secure food and livelihood,” Perez said.

According to the Climate Change and Development report of UNDP, sea level rise may cause rice production to drop by nine percent.

FAO estimates that sea level rise has begun to bring in salt to around 6.5 percent or 831 million hectares of the world's total land.

Perez said forward looking assessments must  be made to determine the extent and duration the fields that can be used for rice production, in terms of cost and benefits.

Taytay’s climate change adaptation plan has a set of integrated pilot activities which include testing of climate smart rice, mangrove reforestation, seaweed farming, early warning and disaster response and preparedness trainings, and health management and sanitation monitoring workshops.

CTI-SEA is a regional project funded by the Asian Development Bank and the Global Environment Facility.

It aims for climate resilience and sustainable resource management in the coastal communities of Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.