Mini hydrotiller for Banaue rice farmers
Donation protected
Last March, to better understand rice farmer needs and daily lives, members of the International Rice Research Institute's (IRRI) Rice: Research to Production course visited the 2,000-year-old Banaue Rice Terraces, one of the Philippine's National Cultural Treasures, and referred in the Philippines as the "eight wonder of the world".
Course participants--graduate students and young scientists from across the globe--met with a local farmers group, members of the Ifugao tribe, and asked them what their main constraints to rice production are.
The farmers' answer: "Our hydrotiller is broken."
In order to help this group of farmers regain access to mechanized farm equipment, the alumnae of the Rice: Research to Production (R2P) course are raising funds to donate to this farmer group a new mini hydrotiller--ideal for plowing the narrow rice paddies fields of the mountainous Banaue terraces.
This mini hydrotiller (pictured above) was designed by PhilRice, the Philippines Rice Research Institute, as a small but powerful tractor to till flooded rice paddy soil. It will help these rice farmers with the back-breaking work of tilling their fields, traditionally plowed with a water buffalo (carabao), or in the mountainous rice terraces by hand with a shovel, as the water buffalo cannot climb the steep slopes. (See a similar mini hydrotiller in action here).
In these modern times the Banaue rice terrace farmers face many threats to their traditional culture and way of life: They don't eat their own heirloom rice varieties, like the pink-tinted, annual tinawon crop, but sell it to the urban market for a profit and eat cheaper rice varieties grown elsewhere in the Philippines. Giant earthworms have invaded, tunnelling through the rice paddies and making them susceptible to landslides. And the low profitability and difficult labor of rice farming gives little incentive for the local citizens to continue growing rice as their ancestors have done, leaving many to abandon their paddies for more lucrative jobs and urban living.
If the funds are raised in time, the 2014 R2P course participants will deliver and present the new mini hydrotiller to the farmers group in Banaue at the end of May 2014. Otherwise, the tiller will be presented to the farmers following the course.
The tractor dispersal is the response of Rice: Research to Production trainees and organizers to help meet the needs of farmers toward improve rice production in the terraces by moving away from manual tillage to mechanized cultivation. As the tiller will be presented to a group of farmers, similar to a cooperative, many farmers and their families will be able to benefit from the shared use of the hydrotiller.
On hearing about this campaign, Omer Badi, a young agricultural engineer from Sudan and one of the original 2013 course participants who interviewed the farmers said: "I'm proud that this institute (IRRI) keeps playing an important role to improve farmers life. For the Banaue farmers community I think it is very important to create some kind of coordination...in order to modernize agricultural activities and keep the soul of history as a heritage at the same time."
Help us to help Banaue farmers continue planting rice and save the livelihood and integrity of the Banaue Rice Terraces for generations to come!
Course participants--graduate students and young scientists from across the globe--met with a local farmers group, members of the Ifugao tribe, and asked them what their main constraints to rice production are.
The farmers' answer: "Our hydrotiller is broken."
In order to help this group of farmers regain access to mechanized farm equipment, the alumnae of the Rice: Research to Production (R2P) course are raising funds to donate to this farmer group a new mini hydrotiller--ideal for plowing the narrow rice paddies fields of the mountainous Banaue terraces.
This mini hydrotiller (pictured above) was designed by PhilRice, the Philippines Rice Research Institute, as a small but powerful tractor to till flooded rice paddy soil. It will help these rice farmers with the back-breaking work of tilling their fields, traditionally plowed with a water buffalo (carabao), or in the mountainous rice terraces by hand with a shovel, as the water buffalo cannot climb the steep slopes. (See a similar mini hydrotiller in action here).
In these modern times the Banaue rice terrace farmers face many threats to their traditional culture and way of life: They don't eat their own heirloom rice varieties, like the pink-tinted, annual tinawon crop, but sell it to the urban market for a profit and eat cheaper rice varieties grown elsewhere in the Philippines. Giant earthworms have invaded, tunnelling through the rice paddies and making them susceptible to landslides. And the low profitability and difficult labor of rice farming gives little incentive for the local citizens to continue growing rice as their ancestors have done, leaving many to abandon their paddies for more lucrative jobs and urban living.
If the funds are raised in time, the 2014 R2P course participants will deliver and present the new mini hydrotiller to the farmers group in Banaue at the end of May 2014. Otherwise, the tiller will be presented to the farmers following the course.
The tractor dispersal is the response of Rice: Research to Production trainees and organizers to help meet the needs of farmers toward improve rice production in the terraces by moving away from manual tillage to mechanized cultivation. As the tiller will be presented to a group of farmers, similar to a cooperative, many farmers and their families will be able to benefit from the shared use of the hydrotiller.
On hearing about this campaign, Omer Badi, a young agricultural engineer from Sudan and one of the original 2013 course participants who interviewed the farmers said: "I'm proud that this institute (IRRI) keeps playing an important role to improve farmers life. For the Banaue farmers community I think it is very important to create some kind of coordination...in order to modernize agricultural activities and keep the soul of history as a heritage at the same time."
Help us to help Banaue farmers continue planting rice and save the livelihood and integrity of the Banaue Rice Terraces for generations to come!
Organizer
Janelle Jung
Organizer
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