Farm practices alarm officials

By Leander C Domingo/Manila Times

With the onset of the rainy season, the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Region 2 has expressed alarm over the unrestrained destructive farm practices by upland farmers causing landslides, soil erosion and silt buildup in the rivers.

The DA said these destructive farm practices in upland farming include slashing or burning of the forest, intensive tillage or cultivation of slope areas, burning of stubbles, indiscriminate use of pesticides and over application of synthetic fertilisers.

“These practices contribute greatly to soil degradation which affects not only the upland but also those in the lowland as it causes soil erosion which eventually causes siltation in the rivers,” said Orlando Lorenzana, DA Technical Director for Region 2. Lorenzana said the destruction of the region’s upland soils causes severe floods during rainy seasons and it also causes denudation of forestlands. He said that the DA is conducting massive awareness for upland farmers to stop this practice of destructive farming especially to mitigate soil degradation and climate change.

“We need to continually educate our upland farmers to shift from this destructive mode of farming and for them to refrain from such practices,” Lorenzana said. He said the farmers should refrain from burning the mountain slopes and stubbles, and that they should consider using organic fertilisers which is an alternative to excessive use of commercialised farm inputs.

“The most critical practice now is the use of insecticides as they contribute to soil fertility depletion and cause environment contamination,” Lorenzana said.