In Tribal Lands! ‘Kadyos’ As Hedgerows In Zero-Tillage Farming

A 700-hectare Blaan Tribal Land in General Santos City will soon become a model for a Zero-Tillage Sorghum Farming Program where undulating areas will be contoured using Pigeon Peas (sn: Cajanus Cajan) as hedgerows.
The area, owned by the Quia Blaan Clan part of which was once leased by the KAPA financial pyramiding group and planted to Cavendish Bananas, is located in the upland area of Sitio Balnabo in Barangay San Jose, Gen. Santos City.
The clan had earlier signed a Sorghum Partnership Farming Program with the Southseas Agri-Aqua Ventures, Inc., a young agricultural company headed by former Senator Panfilo Lacson.
The plain arable areas, however, are limited to only about 150 hectares while the rest as sloping and undulating thus it could not be cultivated using tractors and farm machinery.
When I and Filipino-American farmer-scientist visited the area on Jan. 2, we saw the vast areas covered by grass and weeds stretching to “as far as the eyes can see.”
The sight gave me an idea of introducing the Sloping Agriculture Land Technology (SALT) developed by the Mt. Carmel Baptist Rural Life Center in Bansalan, Davao Del Sur where hedgerows of leguminous shrubs like Indigofera, Rensonii and Flamengia were used in land contouring.
In between the hedgerows, MBRLC planted vegetables and other cash crops.
In the case of the Blaan Quia Clan land, I intend to introduce Pigeon Peas or “Kadyos” as the hedgerow shrubs because it will produce peas which we could use as plant protein source for feed formulation.
In between the hedgerows, we will leave open spaces of between 15 to 20 meters where we will plant Sorghum using stakes in Zero-Tillage Farming Technology.
The Clan Leaders liked the idea because th “Kadyos” could also be the source of protein-rich food for them to address malnutrition in the village of about 40 families.
The leaves of the leguminous “Kadyos” are also expected to enrich the soil which when tested by our instruments was found to be high in Phosphorous and Potassium but very low in nitrogen.
The experimental program will be launched on Jan. 5 when our Agricultural Drones will spray herbicides to eliminate the weeds and grasses in preparation for the planting of “Kadyos” in hedgerows.
We will document this program because if successful, this could be replicated in other tribal areas which are mostly hilly and sloping in other parts of Mindanao.
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So this will be