In Luntian Farm we proceed by hypotheses, in the best “tradition”
of Neo-Ruralism. The clearest the hypothesis, the most reliable the conclusions
we can draw from our work-in-progress. Hence, let’s state our working hypotheses
in the simplest possible form.
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Draft animal power is a particularly efficient way to cut CO2
emissions from tropical farms.
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Animal energy is a critical dimension of the
mixed grove-livestock-crop system on which sustainable upland agriculture depends.
Draft animals and animal energy are essential to achieve food security
in Luntian Farm specific context: rain-fed agriculture, in times of
climate change, in a land of typhoons.
Efforts to tap animal energy and engage draft animals for food
production must confront challenges of different nature.
Disdain for draft animal power is deeply engrained in several agriculture
mechanization approaches. Modernization by means of mechanization has
bankrupted, polluted and marginalized many farming systems, but retains a
cultural hegemony especially among its victims: the upland farmers.
Traditions on draft animals have largely faded. Loss of traditions means
lost traditional knowledge on how to train, how to harness and how to deploy water
buffaloes and horses. It means few trained buffaloes to pull farming tools, and
even fewer trainers. It means inadequate supply of the implements to harness
animal energy for land preparation, hauling and harvesting. For example: good levelling
board (paragos), harrows (suyod) or ploughs (araro) are all but disappeared.
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| young female kalabaw (water buffalo) |
Data and analyses on animal energy are scarce worldwide, but nearly non-existent
for Philippine contemporary agriculture. While melancholic, bucolic dreams of a
bygone countryside are quite abundant, figures and researches on draft animals
here and now are sorely missing. Thus, it’s hard to plan and set objectives, as
simply there are no standards.
How many buffaloes to prepare a hectare of rain-fed land? How many buffalo-hours (or buffalo-days) to plough a hectare and plant upland
rice? How old
should a buffalo be to pull the harrow? How many kilos (or sacks) of compost
can a horse haul?
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| Chablis: young female native horse |
Access to modern technologies is limited in rural areas, more so if
modern technologies question or disprove the rudimentary paradigms of chemical
agriculture and farm mechanization. Yet, access to modern technologies is vital
to harness animal power.
Tractors and diesel engines are not modern technologies. But equipment
to optimize traction power of draft animals and up-to-date veterinary care are.
And modern scientific knowledge is needed for the appropriate training of
working buffaloes and horses.
To test our working hypotheses we will need to (1) rediscover and engage with
traditions, (2) explore local environmental knowledge, (3) access contemporary
scientific knowledge on draft animals, and (4) design socially sustainable
strategies to employ animal energy as an important
aspect of a mixed grove-livestock-crop system
