The leader of the group, Eduardo Capindo, represents the farmers in municipal and regional consultations regarding rainwater harvesting. Recently, he made a report to the association of farmers called Progressive and United Federation of Farmers Association of Oton (PUFFAO).  He reported on the observations made by his group. The farmer group in Oton is one of the 4 learning groups in the Tigum-Aganan Watershed. Membership in the federation becomes a means of communicating what the group has learned and to listen to other farmers and experts talking about new ways of resolving farm problems, especially at this time when climate patterns are increasingly becoming unpredictable. The learning groups also get to connect to and share their experiences in radio programs such as Ugat Sang Tubig and the regular program of the Department of Agriculture.

Eduardo owns 0.7 hectare of land, which is supported by water coming from his 500 square meter rainwater pond.  His everyday task is to monitor and record, in a notebook, the level of water in his pond.  His notes, for example, showed that water increased by 20 cubic meters from July to September this year.  Rain was particularly heavy during these months. Because it is the rainy season and there is enough water in the pond, he got fingerlings of tilapia (leather jacket fish) from the Municipal Agriculture Office for his pond and for his group. Ireneo Almaras, a member of the group, started growing tilapia earlier in the season and is already harvesting 1 kilo a week for daily viand (even if the fish is not yet of the right size for the market). What is important, according to him, is food on their table. Ireneo says he is happy with his rice harvest for the past 2 years.  Assured of a good harvest this year, Ireneo milled 100 sacks of his last year’s rice harvest for sale.

As with other rainwater pond users, the ponds used by the farmers is usually fed by a canal from the catchment and has an outlet which goes to the canals in the service area. Sometimes, water flows out of the pond via a plastic or rubber hose. But there is an outflow which goes to the canals downstream - this creates a valve to manage the level of water in the rice pond.  The downstream canal leads to a nearby creek or brook, and this canal passes by several farms. The farmers then talk to each other and assigns someone to open the valve at a certain time to let the excess water in the rice paddies flow.

One day, Eduardo observed that too much rain and strong winds damaged 20-25% of his crops. To help alleviate the condition, Eduardo opened the rice bunds to let the water flow out of the rice paddies.  Once a week, Eduardo goes around his neighbourhood to visit his group’s farms and ask how they deal with too much water in the pond. He would visit his group mates, Serafin Serbidad, Ronilo Guellermo, Edgar Santander and Angel Benjamin.

Serafin Serbidad, a new member of the group, said his activities are concentrated on his farm lot, normally applying fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.  Whenever he needs water for the farm, he gets it from irrigation. His rainwater pond is 5 ft wide and 15 ft long. The center of the pond has depth of about 5 ft. Water from the is used to water his vegetables like string beans, upo, bell pepper and gabi.  Together with Mr. Capindo, he was also able to get around 200 tilapia fingerlings from the Municipal Agriculture Office. With tilapia in their ponds, he and the other farmers needed to rethink their practice of using pesticides and other chemicals.

As part of the group’s learning process, Serafin and Eduardo share their findings with one another. Serafin also also joined him during visits to neighboring farms.  The group is learning to use ways on how to use organic materials for fertilizer and pest control. The group is also experimenting on how to reduce the silt that comes from the water flowing from the irrigation canal, and how to reduce water in the rainwater ponds during heavy rains.  Another challenge that they are currently addressing is how to manage the use of the water in the ponds, given the fact that rain comes only every 6 months or so and the heat speeds up the evaporation of rainwater.