Helen Jensen, Intern 2005-2006

Background Bio:

I grew up in the Eastern Townships region of Québec on a small farm where I knew all the goats by name. I developed a love of plants and everything that grows at a young age and spent three years working on organic farms in the region. Later, I spent two years planting trees and feeding blackflies in northern Ontario. During my university studies I did research on plant chemistry and natural insecticides from tropical plants and was continuously amazed at the versatility of the plant world. In the future, I would like to be involved in the development and implementation of agro-ecological alternatives to conventional agriculture.

Education:

M.Sc. Chemical Ecology, University of Ottawa
B.Sc. Biology, University of Ottawa

Host Country:

The Philippines

Internship Experience:

Descriptions of the past 6 months tend to emerge as a chaos of images, smells, sounds and feelings. The multi-island nature of the Philippines makes each new project area feel like a completely different world, from stately Luzon to the motherly Visayas. I was lucky to visit and work in several different communities including Los Banos, Luzon and the islands of Panay, Guimaras and Negros, in the Visayas. I became involved in developing and adapting alternative farming systems to the conditions in the project areas. My work in the Philippines had to do with preparations, concoctions and extractions, a theme from my previous work in chemical ecology that seems to keep drawing me back.

During my internship I was particularly intrigued by the Nature Farming concoctions that farmers were learning to use and adapt to restore soil fertility in areas where the intensive use of agrochemicals had caused severe declines in soil organic matter and crop yields. The farmers collect indigenous microorganisms from uncultivated areas and use them to help make preparations from locally available materials such as mudpress, rice bran, kohol snails and manure. The use of a fermented preparation known as bokashi for fertilizing crops led to increased crop yields and richer soil. Other preparations were used to help stimulate the flowering and fruiting stages of plants and for pest control. I prepared an instruction manual of the Nature Farming preparations as they are used in the Visayas. This manual is now being used in farmer training sessions conducted by PABINHI members and will be used in training government officials in outreach areas. The ingenuity of the farmers in creating these preparations was impressive and is one example of their ability to adapt available resources to suit their needs.

Another approach to restoring soil fertility and, in a more general way, restore balance to the farm, is to use biodynamic farming techniques. My role in this project was to look for new ways to adapt the biodynamic preparations (originally made with Northern European plants and materials) to the extremely different resource base in the Philippines. Along with farmer leaders and members of the local community I conducted tests to determine the best method for extracting high purity silica from rice hulls for use as an alternative to ground quartz powder in the horn silica preparation. Another set of experiments involved the use of native medicinal plants as natural botanical insecticides to control pests in the vegetable crops.

These projects that emphasize the use of locally available and non-toxic ingredients are important tools in the organic farming revolution in the Philippines. With organic production, farmers can contribute to the overall health of their community by reducing the amount of external inputs in the system and also by spending less money purchasing fertilizers and pesticides. The communal nature of bokashi preparation also helps perpetuate the tradition of neighbours and friends working together to accomplish tasks on each other’s farms.

I was amazed to discover the beauty and warmth of the rural Pilipino culture, with their heartfelt singing, upbeat nature and concern for everyone around them. I am thankful to all of the people I met for being so open to sharing their daily lives, from planting the rice and feeding the chickens to dancing at the annual baranguay disco-disco. The quiet, sweltering, mid-afternoon hours spent in a bamboo house playing dama, chatting and just hanging out are something I will always look back on with smiles.

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Christina Rehbein, Intern 2005-2006

Background Bio:

Growing up in the Ottawa Valley, I developed a love of nature and a strong environmental ethic as a child. I went on to do an Environmental Science degree at Queen’s University, focusing on earth systems science and physical geography. I followed this up with a master’s degree from the University of Waterloo, where I designed a wetland restoration plan for marginal farmlands combining alternative crops with wildlife habitat. It was great to work with farmers in British Columbia on that project. I have also worked as a lab assistant for Geological Survey, an engineering assistant, a writer, and most recently as coordinator and editor for the Parks Research Forum of Ontario.

Education:

BSc from Queen’s University, Environmental Science/Earth Systems Science
MES from University of Waterloo, Environment and Resource Studies

Host Country:

The Philippines

Internship Experience:

My main responsibility in the Philippines was to develop a project with very exciting possibilities for both aiding local farmers’ livelihoods and the environment, on a local and global scale. This was based on putting some of REAP’s technology and experience in low-impact farming to work in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) program developed by the UNFCCC for supporting the Kyoto Protocol.

The first CDM-based project involved the Mayon Turbo Stove, which is capable of displacing approximately two tonnes of fuelwood or its equivalent in charcoal or LPG per household. This capability is much needed in provinces such as Iloilo, where the patches of remaining forests are receding higher and higher up the hills leaving such a stark landscape below! To initiate the project and submit a valid proposal, I visited and discussed the potential development of a rice-hull stove program with many people: welders, an engineer, an appropriate technology researcher, local government agencies, and farmers’ cooperatives. I also conducted surveys of rice mills in Iloilo province in order to estimate the amount of rice hull available in the Visayan region of the Philippines and to assess the feasibility of collecting rice hull from the mills as fuel.

As a second project, I began research on greenhouse gas mitigation through organic rice production with the help of local farmers as well as scientists at the University of the Philippines, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Asia Rice Foundation. I collected on-farm data including soil samples, compared these with current literature and experiments, and wrote up the results of this study as a preliminary project idea. This pilot project would involve promoting ecological agriculture as a means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions coming from conventional farming practices (crop residue burning, heavy synthetic fertilizer application, stockpiling of crop residues).

In addition to this work, I also supported the work of our partner NGO, PABINHI-Pilipinas, in continuing the Philippines Sustainable Seed and Agriculture project. Through this project, low-income farmers were realizing greater yields on their organic farms and developing confidence to experiment with new techniques in sustainable agriculture that were locally adapted. Helen and I spent two weeks together studying the local dialect of Guimaras and Panay, Illongo, in the shade of a mango tree, surrounded by chickens, goats – and ants. We then separated for our integration period. I moved to a community in the beautiful north of Guimaras to fumble through my Illonggo and build trust and understanding by living farm life there. Seeing me bumbling along in the rice paddies, riding the carabao, and scrubbing my Canadian undergarments at the well amused them to no end! But, from what I could grasp of the workers’ talk with my newly acquired Illonggo, planting rice alongside the workers and sharing their food and lifestyle was able to foster the kind of relationships that are invaluable to an international project effort.

Working in the Philippines proved an incredible experience, engaging me in a more developed leadership role than I would have been exposed to in Canada. The Philippines is a unique country with some special challenges (population pressure, the distinctness of each of its islands!) and it was inspiring for me to work on projects that can help in protecting the incredible biodiversity of the country.