Another type of agriculture

ILIGAN City ― Organic. Synthetic. These are some of the mantras which we hear these days concerning agriculture. Like that which happened in nearby Kauswagan, where many lovers of organic agriculture met And discussed about that.

I think before these things called organic or synthetic when it comes to agriculture, there was another mammal called “primitive” agriculture as I see it and look back at it, agriculture-wise. Or unwise.

For instance, there was this thing called “kaingin.” Which is really a slash-and-burn method. Do some slashing and cutting of trees in the middle of a thick forest and do some “agri-business.” Such as planting crops there in the kaingin area. So that in time you can enjoy the fruits of your labor. No matter how “primitive” it is. Just so, a family can get by.

Remember the song, “planting rice”? Which says “planting rice is never fun/bent from morning till the set of sun.”?

Or I remember the days when the act of harvesting rice was made by hand. Whereby a sort of blade was attached to your hand, of course, a wooden attachment to the blade was made so that one won’t get wounded when doing the act of harvesting! And doing that needed practice. So that the harvesting would be perfect. Perfect in a primitive way.

I was one of those who did just that. (Of course, this makes me “ancient,” hehe.) That’s how we lived in the province, in those days. Now there were several of us who were doing the harvesting, for obvious reasons. The harvested stalks with the palay on them were then brought together and threshed. Also manually. As in separating the palay from the stalks. The procedure required some people to stand in the palay area. And make some movements with their feet, and in the process, remove and separate the palay from the stems.

With the palay already separated, these are then placed in some mats and dried under the sun for hours. During this process, one has to look out for chickens, otherwise, they will be the first ones to partake of these fruits you have labored so much.

With the palay now dried, you have to mill them. Manually too! It is then placed in a wooden piece of equipment called a “lusong.” This has a big hole in it and you place the dried palay into it. Then you pound them with appropriate wooden sticks for several minutes. This primitive milling process lets go of the chaff from the grains of the palay. One does not do this alone, otherwise, he’ll get bored. Two or three or four must do this. This entails practice too for synchronization. Or, ah one can imagine what happens if the tips of the sticks drop at the hole all at the same time.

With the palay now kind of pulverized, you go through the process of separating really the chaff from the grain. Which entails the use of a winnowing basket, we call it. Or simply called “nigo.” One has to place the pounded palay into this basket, then throw them into the air. But be sure to catch them back. With this process, the chaff separates from the grains.

Yet there is another process called “sisig”. With the use of the ”nigo,” you separate them by dancing with the “nigo.”

I’ll tell you how this dance with the |’nigo” is achieved. And I think some of my friends became good dancers because of this well, ritual.

So far so good? I mean I did not bore you with some of the “primitive” aspects of agriculture? Well, let me tell you how copra is made. First, we separate the good coconuts from the foolish coconuts…But excuse me, I’m sidelined by this dialogue from a half-forgotten movie I saw: “Amigo to die for a woman is foolish.”

“But amigo, to die for a woman is more foolish!.”

Another sidelining thought. A man said that he did not know what the weapons of the third world war would be used. “But I’m sure, the next world war would use weapons of sticks and stones.”

Meaning, the wars this world would do will be in a “primitive” fashion?

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