Jenny Durant, who is currently in the Philippines on a Fullbright, writes alluringly about what she calls “the native rice dilemma”–the impossible obstacles that Ifugao rice farmers face when trying to make ends meet. It’s a story of how the Department of Agriculture infiltrated a centuries-old practice, introducing a breed of rice that effectively destroyed the soil.

So, the D.A. provided a solution—a new rice variety. But after a few years, they encountered the same problems: the hardening soil, the low harvests, etc. So every few years the D.A. had a new variety to introduce to the farmers—it was cheap, it worked for a few years, and then the D.A. would have a new, affordable variety for them to grow. It developed into a codependent relationship, questionable to say the least. Many farmers never grew tinawon again.

You might also want to check out Durant’s excellent post, A Conversation With a Mumbaki.
I had the pleasure of working briefly with Durant when I was a visiting writer last spring in the MFA Program at St. Mary’s College of Moraga. It is always a joy to see a student go on to do important and, in this case, inspiring work!