1.Construct a water impounding project. To ensure adequate water supply throughout the year for agricultural needs, a 2,500 sq m area (or even larger) should be set aside at the uppermost agricultural portion of the area for a water catchment or impounding project. Aside from its agricultural essence, the stored water may have multiple uses for aquaculture, fishing, boating, and power generation through a mini-hydro-electric plant.
Renting of a backhoe from a quarry site nearby should be negotiated soonest so that soil excavation can proceed before the onset of the rainy season. Detailed technical and partial budget studies, however, should be done prior to digging in order to establish the proper depth, lining design (to prevent seepage), and project costs and benefits.
2. Construct a deep well and pressure tank for domestic needs. The two wells in the campsite, if improved and sealed properly, are potential sources of water for drinking, washing, and bathing. Presently, these wells are exposed to contaminants like nitrates and residual pesticides because of proximity to the ricefields. The best location of a separate deep well should be at the upper agricultural portion to ensure safe drinking water. Pipelines can be installed later for water distribution. If the housing and support facilities are at the downstream, there will be no need for a pressure tank since water supply can be piped down gravitationally.
3. Develop the paddy plots for an Integrated (rice-Based Farming System. An Integrated Farming System (IFS) is one that consists of diversified farming enterprises. The central purpose is to minimize risks and uncertainty in farming, raise farm productivity and income, and generate additional-on farm employment. An integrated system, however, leads to indiscriminate use of inputs which, if indiscriminately used, may result in degradation of the physical environment and poisoning of human, wildlife, and aquatic species.
The IFS component should include rice as the main crop with the following as supplementary activities: bio intensive gardening (BIG), poultry (preferably native) and swine production, tilapia raising, and forest and fruit tree planting. Seeds approved by the National Industry Seed Council (preferably hybrid varieties) should be planted because of their high-yield potentials. The existing cropping pattern can be modified into Rice-Rice-Upland Crop. The Upland crop could be sweet corn, watermelon, mungbean or any legume.
Development of the paddy plots will entail not only repairing and strengthening of the dikes but also providing big and deep drainage canals at the peripheral portions of the ricefields. This will prevent the seepage or runoff of water from one paddy plot to another, thereby losing the applied fertilizers or other inputs in specific plots.
For crop logging purposes, each paddy plot should be measured for actual area so that the application of the right dosage of the specific input is made. Also, accurate record of yield from each plot will be yardstick for adjustment of inputs to be applied for the next crops.
4. Adopt the Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT). SALT is a simple, applicable, low-cost, and timely method of farming the uplands. This technology was developed for farmers with small tools, small capital, and little learning in agriculture. In the SALT system, a farmer devotes 60 percent of his upland area to agricultural crops and 40 percent to forest trees.
The steps involve locating and developing contour lines; planting the contour lines with leguminous shrubs and trees such as Glericidia sepium (madre de cacao), Leucaena diversifolia (acid-tolerant ipil-ipil), and Desmodium rensonii; cultivating and planting the strips alternately; planting long-term crops on every third strip and on land borders; planting short-term crops on every first and second strip; trimming the contour hedgerows regularly; rotating food and cash crops (corn, sorghum, tubers like cassava and sweet corn, pineapple, castor bean, bush sitao, and peanuts, and: maintaining the SALT farm by gathering and piling up stalks, twigs, branches, leaves, rocks, and stones at the base of the multi-purpose trees and shrubs. This can result in strong, permanent, naturally green, and beautiful terraces which will reliably anchor the precious soil in the first place.
