Story and photos by Leonardo Perante II
LANDLOCKED on the west by the Cordilleras, at the southern border by the Caraballos and on the eastern side by the Sierra Madre mountain range is the Cagayan Valley region.
In the country’s second geographical region (from Nueva Vizcaya to Cagayan province up north) lies vast agricultural lands, Nueva Vizcaya, otherwise known as “gateway” to the valley, has other flagship crops, like oranges, pineapples, salad vegetables, cut-flowers, mangoes, livestock and fish farming, while Quirino, Isabela and Cagayan provinces produce substantial corn and tobacco harvests. Isabela is now dubbed as the Corn Capital of the Philippines.
But while these provinces in the Northeastern Luzon block excel in their respective agricultural products, rice farming stands out as a common denominator. The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) confirmed that some 139,000 hectares of the region’s total land area are planted to rice. The construction of the Magat Multipurpose Dam has provided a steady irrigation for rice farms in Isabela, while Cagayan river irrigates the northernmost province in Luzon mainland.
Though not blessed with sizable reservoirs, Nueva Vizcaya is strategically located upstream of the Magat River. Its extensive watershed provides fresh irrigation water from tributaries, like Matuno, Imugan, Santa Cruz and Sante Fe rivers. This is backed by a number of creek networks enough to sustain a year-round or three cropping season rice-planting calendar. The Vizcaya watershed literally supplies Magat Hydroelectric Dam reservoir in Ramon, Isabela.
The wide-scale devastation brought about by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 damaged thousands of fertile farms in Central Luzon. It also caused the drying up of the Pantabangan Dam reservoir in Nueva Ecija, a major source of irrigation water in the central plains, thus, stripping the former rice granary of the Philippines of its lofty status.
It is precisely for this reason that the water flowing from the controversial Casecnan river from the southern part of Nueva Vizcaya has been tapped to boost both power and irrigation requirements of Central Luzon through a 26-kilometer underground diversion weir that would siphon Vizcaya water to the Pantabangan Hydroelectric Dam in Nueva Ecija.
Today Cagayan Valley has emerged as the country’s grains granary. And of all the provinces in the region’s finest eating quality rice—dubbed as “Vizcaya Rice”. How it gained this reputation goes way back in history.
During the pre-Spanish era, Nueva Vizcaya’s rolling landscape was inhabited only by the indigenous head-hunting Bungkalot, Ifugao and Igorot tribes. When Spanish colonizers discovered the place, it was named after the people living in the coast of Mar de Vizcaine in Spain. In the beginning of the 19th century, it was a part of the vast Territorio de Missiones of the Spanish-controlled government of Cagayan. The territory covered eastern half of Northern Luzon from Nueva Ecija to Aparri, including the Batanes Islands.
Because of the tribes’ head-hunting activities and the province’s mountainous borders, Spanish conquerors and even local immigrants have found difficulty penetrating what was then a new-found land. With a considerable distance away from the shorelines and seaports, the remote introduction of more advanced farm implements and equipment from the “invaders” have kept the natives in the primitive method of farming, unwittingly organic. Rice, already a major crop by then, has likewise been grown in a traditional manner and milled manually on wooden or stone mortar and pestle.
Shortly after World War II, the Americans introduced mechanized farming with power tillers called tractors. This was followed by the introduction of a mobile tractor-mounted rice mill that roams around the towns milling rice harvest right at farm gates or at the farmer’s doorstep.
The former Bigasang Bayan, which sold subsidized rice during the war was replaced by the Farmer’s Cooperative Marketing. Eventually, the Rice and Corn Administration took over the job of providing a stable supply of rice at a subsidized price.
In the 1950s heavy-duty rice mills installed in more permanent and bigger housing were introduced in the province. Farmers could then bring the bulk of their harvest for a relatively faster milling time.
In 1972 the National Grains Authority was created to ensure stocks and stabilize rice prices. The Department of Agriculture was, likewise, mandated to spearhead the implementation of the Masagana 99, a government rice-production program which provided rice farmers capital via an agricultural credit system with the organization of Samahang Nayons.
With the introduction of new high-yielding rice varieties, modern farm implements and high-tech methods of rice planting, like the mechanized rice planter and the mechanical rice reaper. A farmer at present could double his conventional harvest. Today, a hectare could yield a minimum of 100 to as high as 200 sacks at 50 kilograms per bag.
Despite the marketing assistance offered by the National Food Authority (NFA) authorizing conduit traders to buy rice from the farmers for the agency, surplus rice stocks spilled from NFA warehouses. Commercial rice trading then came into the picture.
With rice production stabilized in the region, commercial rice trading hit its highest potentials. Petty rice traders scattered all over the valley serve as feeders to trading giants who, eventually, deliver what was termed “commercial rice” to key cities, like Metro Manila and Baguio City.
Image credits: Leonardo Perante II