My response to: “So how’s work going?”
Adulting as a concept is no more epitomized than in the innocent question, “How is work going?”
A much welcomed but also dreaded inquiry.
It’s not the repetitiveness that wears on me, but actually the ambiguity that accompanies my answer because even I am unsure how work is going most times. But to offer some context and updates on what I’ve been up to so far:
As an intern at IRRI, I am positioned on the Sustainable Impact platform, specifically on the Livelihoods, Gender, and Nutrition cluster. This platform facilitates the Heirloom Rice Project, which was initiated by the Philippines’ Department of Agriculture — Cordillera Administrative Region (DA-CAR) in 2014. IRRI with PhilRice (Philippine Rice Research Institute) act as implementing agencies. The Cordillera region refers to the northern mountain ranges of Luzon island, Philippine archipelago. This primarily includes the four provinces of Benguet, Mountain Province, Kalinga, and Ifugao. The Cordillera is home to 1.7 million people, mostly dependent on agriculture, farming thousands of meters above sea level on steep slopes — and hence, home to the famous rice terraces, 8th wonder of the world.
The Heirloom Rice Project’s (HRP) slogan is Capturing value, Preserving heritage. This initiative was founded out of a desire and necessity to empower the Cordillera Region’s rice industry, not only economically but also socially. Rice varieties found only in the Cordillera mountain provinces offer superior nutritional benefits to commodity rice, but are going extinct due to low productivity/profits and rural emmigration. Through improved crop production and management technologies, the HRP strives to preserve heirloom rice’s history, culture, environment, and people while boosting commodity value.
From 2014–2017, Phase I of the HRP was conducted with a focus on technological introductions to farm communities to capacitate increased production. My time here is during Year 3 of Phase II, which spans from June 2017-May 2020; objective being to increase farmer income, document rice varieties for genebank conservation, and ensure heirloom rice market competitiveness. More on what this means later.
Since coming here I’ve been lucky enough to visit Baguio City twice. Also known as the “City of Pines,” Baguio is situated about 1,500 m above sea level and is noted for its cooler weather. I note it for its mere situation. Infrastructure stacked at such density and precarious angles; I have a more profound appreciation for cars and knees. For both visits’ occasion, I was accompanying IRRI staff on training workshops, unrelated to my specific task here, but still part of the HRP’s work.
As mentioned in a previous post, my first trip involved a CO2 fumigation training workshop. CO2 fumigation is a pest management tactic, in which dried grains are stored in an airtight container before having 5 kg of CO2 pumped in via tank and pipe. The gas will not only exterminate pests (insects, rats, worms) but also render any eggs sterile. Grains are then left to sit for a week before uncovering.
The Post-Harvest department conducts these training workshops to a) introduce new practices to increase grain quality post-harvest and reduce waste and b) get farmer feedback. If the farmers, after a couple weeks trialing, find the techniques/mechanization suitable, Post-Harvest will report to the DA-CAR which will then subsidize the materials for farmers to use. This system works only with the cooperative model. Farmers are encouraged to consolidate into cooperatives and pool resources in order to maximize efficiency and keep quality consistent. Quality is of utmost important when trying to compete on the market. While heirloom rice may give off rustic vibes with its small scale, “natural” grains, no miller or retailer would take up the product unless certain quality standards were met (heirloom rice is susceptible to broken grains and more). Therefore, farmers must consolidate to ensure consistency and bulk to craft an enticing enough offer for market entry.
Last week I came back to Baguio but remained in the city, no mountain excursions. This time farmers came down to the city for a Characterization and Conservation of Heirloom Rice workshop. There they were familiarized on the topic of rice morphology (anatomy) and processes for identifying traits. It’s important to catalogue rice varieties and their appearance for not only gene bank preservation but also to conserve desirable traits. If each farmer kept a record of which plants performed well, they could identify easier which variety to keep for the next planting season. Records such as these also benefit the DA-CAR in terms of tracking which species are extant or at-risk of extinction.
Other than those two trips, work at the office has been mainly Excel-based. Jenny and I have been inputting data from surveys conducted last year on rice varieties farmed and production yields from three provinces. Initially the plan for this year was to accompany Value Chain Analysis during July across all four provinces. The objective being to interview farmers and stakeholders to better understand the process/limitations of product to market, link parties to increase market access, and look into byproducts/alternative uses of heirloom rice. Due to delays in paperwork, all travels have been postponed. Instead, we have been assigned to a smaller inquiry and are tasked in assisting a pilot SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis via the PNOA method, with a pending trip to two provinces during the last week of the month.
The Participatory Needs and Opportunities Assessment (PNOA) is a qualitative research method that places participants in a conducive environment to enable them to discuss the needs and opportunities of groups or communities (Penderis, 2012). PNOA encourages participants toward self-reflection, which in turn empowers them to take part in the identification of their needs for interventions (Griffin, et.al, 2). The objective of this PNOA is to verify whether HRP Phase 1 needs were addressed and if the same problems still persist. Our focus will be on production flow pre-trade (seed possession through processing of grain), sources of financial credit, infrastructure (electricity & irrigation), and internal management of farm co-ops.
That is all I have for now…. interns learn quickly to embrace ambiguity and not feel unproductive in the midst of absent schedules. Nonetheless, more updates to come.
Sources
Penderis, S. (2012).“Theorising Participation:From Tyranny to Emancipation”. The Journal of African & Asian Local Government Studies. Vol.3, №3,pp. 1–28.
Griffin, Imelda, Jordan Tredinnick, and Eadie Hancock (2014). “Participatory Needs and Opportunities Assessment.”
