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First Posted on Inside Mindanao (www.insidemindanao.com) on January 28, 2010

"Floating farms" developed in Sibugay to mitigate flooding
By Antonio M. Manaytay

IPIL, ZAMBOANGA SIBUGAY—More than half of the residents were evacuated when the village was hit by flood in 2006, recalls village chief Denia Salinding of Barangay Salinding in Siay town, some 750 kilometers southeast of Manila and 40 kilometers from here, the capital town of the province of Zamboanga Sibugay.

"Most of our crops were submerged and damaged by the flood when the water in nearby river overflowed due to heavy rains," she said.

The 2006 flood that hit the community was the second in 10 years. In 1999, the community was also submerged under water. Barangay Salinding is a low–lying coastal community near the biggest river of the province, Sibuguey River, making it vulnerable to floods during heavy downpour of rains. It has a population of almost 2,000.

The residents were housed at the local parish compound for several days until the water subsided, she added.

Salinding village is one of the villages of Zamboanga Sibugay expected to be underwater if the country's sea level rises merely by one meter due to climate change.

In an analysis made by the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) Climate Change Program released late last year, the province is the fourth most vulnerable with 12 of 16 towns of the province or 8,330 hectares to submerge following a one–meter rise.

Cagayan province is the most vulnerable with 16 towns or 13,134 hectares will go underwater; Palawan ranks second with 17 towns affected or 9.146 hectares; followed by Iloilo with 16 towns affected or 8,647 hectares; Zamboanga Sibugay; and Camarines Sur with 27 towns affected or 8,139 hectares.

Completing the list of 10 provinces that will be most adversely affected by a one–meter sea level rise is Negros Occidental, 7,870 ha. in 25 towns; Capiz, 7.094 ha. in seven towns; Bohol, 5,985 ha. in 24 towns; Tawi–Tawi, 5,987 ha. in eight towns; and Sulu, 5,728 ha. in 19 towns.

Alarmed by the recurring problem of flooding faced by the community, the Disaster Management Program of the Social Action Ministry of the Prelature of Ipil conducted an assessment in November 2007. Among the suggested solutions include the construction of bridge as a contingency measure against floods, improvement of roads, provision of rescue equipment, and source of potable water.

"To implement these plans require big amount of money which we don't have," Gualberto Largo, head of the church–based program on disaster management, said in an interview.

Instead of addressing the problem head on, he said, the social action "aims to enhance the capacity of the community to make it disaster–resilient."

"We have lobbied with the local government for the infrastructure projects needed to mitigate the flooding while we also continue to provide series of trainings to prepare the community in times of flooding," the disaster management program head explained.

These disaster preparedness trainings include rescue and search and first aid, he said.

The social action, he added, is also looking at the development of "floating garden" in the community with the help of a partner institution, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).

"The idea is to train the farmers in planting crops that can withstand flooding," he explained.

Two experts from PhilRice visited the community as part of the preliminary assessment and planning in order to address the situation.

"Initially, we came up with a plan with the social action," Hazel Alfon, head of PhilRice Agribusiness Incubation Services for Enterprises, in an interview said.

The plan includes trainings to be provided by PhilRice like livelihood training and technical assistance to the farmers.

"Our role is to provide inputs to the planning but the social action took the lead in the planning with the community," she stressed.

"We look at serving the small farmers and indigenous peoples in the community by developing rice–based farming system," she said.

"And since we are a technology–based institution, we will try to look at the possibility of adapting our technologies to the conditions of the community through the social action as our partner," she added.

One of these technologies is the "development of a floating garden for a community that is prone to flooding."

PhilRice is a government corporate entity attached to the national agriculture office, the Department of Agriculture, that aims at developing high–yielding and cost–reducing technologies so farmers can produce enough rice for all Filipinos. Recently, it has developed a rice variety that will survive even it is submerged underwater.

Its Agribusiness Incubation Services for Enterprises is mandated to utilize the under–utilized facilities of PhilRice like warehouses and other post–harvest facilities.

To date, the community was able to adapt flood–resistant variety of rice with the help of PhilRice.

Largo revealed that several tests on the adaptability of a flood–resistant variety of rice were successful.

"The planted rice could even withstand being submerged underwater for six weeks," he said.

The community, he added, was also able to develop indigenous rainwater catchment as alternative water system to make potable water available. Supply of potable water is a problem especially during rainy season.

On top of these innovations, the community also tries to establish floating gardens that could stand during flooding.

These gardens, he said, are established on elevated platforms using local materials which are beyond the reach of raging water during flooding.

"There are successful models of these floating gardens developed in the community," he said.

"We are hopeful that Barangay Salinding will be ready to meet head-on the disaster it suffered the past years with these new technologies we developed with the help of PhilRice," he said.

It is important for the villagers, according to him, to finally rise above of their situation being a flood–prone community.

END