Evaluating the Potential of Quingua Soil Series Towards a More Productive and Sustainable Lowland Rice-Based Farming in the Philippines

Abstract

Land Evaluation System using the modified Food and Agriculture Organization framework was carried out to assess the suitability of various important crops to Quingua soil series. Corresponding sound management interventions were then formulated over the identified production constraints. This was done to achieve a more productive and sustainable rice-based farming. The system generates a more specific land utilization type in which spatial and climatic variabilities are recognized. The data used for land suitability evaluation was extracted from 2011-2012 cropping seasons. Analysis disclosed that Quingua series in Talavera and Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija, Philippines, representing irrigated and irrigation-supplemented lowlands, respectively, has high flexibility to growing various types of crops due to its favorable land attributes. Hence, crop intensification is highly recommended provided that minor limitations on soil organic matter, drainage, temperature, and seasonal flooding are offset. Multiple cropping system that involves off-season vegetable production and growing of cash or high-value crops in combination or rotation with rice dominates the farms’ landscape. This practice had generated varying levels of return on investment (ROI) from negative to more than 1000% as affected primarily by climate and farm management. Designing market-driven cropping systems under good management strategies can generate stable ROIs’ ten times higher than the production cost, hence, a more productive and profitable enterprise. Furthermore, soils of the same soil series exhibit similar characteristics or properties that require the same level of management in achieving the desired production output. Thus, information obtained from land suitability evaluation can serve as an effective tool for the government’s specific crop production program and agro-technology promotion.