Indigenous seed storage system of a Manuvú community in Davao City, Mindanao

Seeds are cared for by indigenous peoples (IPs) using an indigenous knowledge system (IKS) that is derived from living in close contact with the earth. Since the IKS comprises successful ways by which a people have had to deal with their environment, such knowledge is worth collecting, conserving and validating. The study was conducted in a Manuvú community of Indangan, Magsaysay, Marilog District, Davao City, Southern Philippines, from May 1998 to December 1999. The Manuvú is one of the 21 subgroups of the Manobo tribe of Mindanao. The study farmers are all female, as is normal among IPs. The households time their planting and all other agricultural activities based on the position and shape of the moon and the appearance of different constellations in the night sky. They also perform two types of rituals. One is the general ritual done in the morning of the first day of January and the other on one's field prior to planting itself. Planting, usually done between January and April, is performed by both male and female members of the community through a sharing of labour called alayon. With a planting distance of 18 × 18" for rice, seeds are dropped on the furrows and covered with soil by a single sweep of the foot. Weeding on the ricefield is done twice, ie, when the plants are about a foot tall, and before booting stage. To appease rats and ricebirds (maya), a separate field is also planted with rice, this one prepared ahead of the main crop. The farmers divert the attack of ricebugs or tiangaw (Leptocorisa chinensis) by hanging rat intestines on pieces of dead wood in the middle of the field; the ricebugs converge at this point and ignore the rice. Another method is to burn the tail of a Philippine palm civet or milo (Paradoxurus philippinensis) in the middle of the field. The foul smell drives away the ricebugs. To drive away ricebirds, a nest together with shells of newly hatched birds is burned in the middle of the field during booting stage. Five indigenous rice varieties were collected (ie, Salog, Puga-Puga, Baloloy, Inampit and Malagkit Nga Tapul) and characterized. Salog was chosen for the storage trials since it was the only cultivar with enough number of grains for experimentation. After 8 months of storage at the campus of UP Los Baños, the seeds stored in the liwit (an indigenous wooden barrel) yielded the highest germination (94%) and highest vigour (94%), the refrigerated seeds the lowest germination (78%) and vigour (51%), and the ambient-laboratory seeds intermediate germination (85%) and vigour (84%). Thus, while the Manuvús use basic storage techniques, it is remarkable that they are able to produce rice seeds of high quality. This coupling of indigenous storage system to break dormancy precisely matched the once-a-year-planting schedule of the Manuvú farmers."