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The organic rice breeder
Ma Diosa Labiste
12/31/2005
After years of calling her the "fool-married-to-her-rice", Lydia Macaya's family and neighbours now admire her for seeding the earth with organically grown rice.
Macaya, 37, is a poor farmer and a rice-breeder; she is the only woman among the 16 rice breeders in the Visayas region, and one of the few such women in the country. She has bred two varieties -- named MLD 1 and MLD 2 -- and both are now widely planted by farmers in Panay and other provinces in the Visayas. MLD stands for Macaya Lydia Dao; Dao is the name of the mountain village in Alimodian town, where she lives.
Of the two rice varieties that Macaya bred, MLD I is more popular because it is soft and yielding when cooked. She grows them without pesticides or chemical fertilisers, on fields irrigated by mountain springs and with enduring practices of farming that are earth-friendly.
Active in village-based councils and associations, Macaya was introduced to the Masipag rice-growing technology in the 'late 1990s. Masipag, an NGO that promotes farmer-scientist partnership for development, has been encouraging farmers to take to organically grown rice and thereby reduce their dependence on chemical inputs and seed companies.
Although the methods of cultivating organic rice are different from the conventional practices Macaya grew up with, she believed Masipag's intervention could change farmers' lives because they could take control over their farming and their income, and break the cycle of debt and dependency.
In 1997, Macaya joined a group of farmers to establish a trial farm in Dao to grow 22 rice varieties; the project was a community effort. Curious to see if the rice seeds would really grow without chemicals, Macaya established her own trial farm as well.
In the early days, the harvest of the two trial farms did not result in mass conversions to organic fanning. Macaya herself saw that the yields were not impressive, and that many farmers doubted the Masipag technology. They asked - Where is the technology that brings yields equal to, or higher than those of the high-yielding varieties of rice that depend on toxic chemical inputs? Can sustainable agriculture end hunger and poverty?
But Macaya did not give in to doubts; she continued working on the big trial farm that was testing about 50 rice varieties. Gradually, other farmers, including her father, observed the long hours of work she put in to apply the Masipag practice. And when the prices of fertilisers and pesticides increased further, small farmers in desperate situations became inclined to try the organic way. Farmers in Dao also realised that they would have to relearn their old ways of farming, and to adopt environment-friendly methods.
Macaya also learned how to prepare rice seed from scientists and other farmers at Masipag. Her father had called her a fool because she grew rice in clay pots. At a particularly complicated and delicate stage of the process, she would bring the potted rice plants indoors. "I slept with them, watching them closely, because otherwise, chickens might have attacked the grain," she says.
Today, the multipurpose cooperative of farmers in Dao, organised in 2003, has 46 of its 68 members practising sustainable agriculture. The village also hosted an assembly of Masipag members in the entire Visayas region. The converted Dao farmers are now growing different varieties of organic rice, including red rice ând some varieties that are aromatic.
MLD I and MLD 2 are now grown in Leyte, Samar and Antique. However, Macaya's rice seeds are not for sale - they are readily available to any farmer who is inclined to adopt Masipag's sustainable agriculture practices. Macaya has also shared or exchanged her own seeds with other seed varieties grown elsewhere in the Philippines, especially the traditional ones noted for their flavour and aroma.
According to Georie Pitong, Masipag coordinator in the Visayas region, seed exchange is a common practice among Masipag members and its affiliates. This system of mutual support ensures that different varieties of seed, and seed preparation is in the hands of the farmers themselves instead of being controlled by large agribusiness corporations and giant seed companies.
Both in her village and among organic fanning advocates, Macaya's achievements are well known. She has also earned recognition from Masipag for her efforts to convince farmers to shift to organic farming, as well as for rice breeding.
When she was a child, Macaya had to discontinue her schooling after Class 6 because her family could not afford further expenses. She spent most of her teenage and adult life working on the three-hectare family farm in Dao. For six years, she also worked as a domestic help in Manila. Today, she is proud of the family farm because anything can grow on it - rice, corn, pole bean, banana, jackfruit, and several other vegetables. The farm sustains her and her seven siblings, some of whom were able to attend school beyond Class 6 with Macaya's support.
Although Macaya is married now -- her husband is also an organic farmer from the Masipag network -- she still lives on her family farm because of her commitment to her work.
— NewsNetwork
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