AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICES IN ALIAGA, NUEVA ECIJA
Rice is the staple food of Filipinos. Known as the “Rice Granary of the Philippines,” Nueva Ecija continues to be the country’s major rice producer because of its agriculture activities boosted by a vast network of facilities and structures. Farming remains to be the main product and source of income in the province where about 300,000 hectares of its 63% land is devoted to the activity. The remaining 37% hectares are forestlands that is surrounded by mountain ranges where Caraballo and Cordillera ranges in the north and Sierra Madre lies in the east. Not only rice but corn, fruit and vegetable production are also considered economically important for the province (Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO], n.d).
Aliaga is one of the agricultural towns found near Cabanatuan City which is the capital of Nueva Ecija. According to the official website of the Municipality of Aliaga, 73.12% of the total land area of the place is for agricultural purposes, 68.61% is good for paddy rice-irrigated, mono cropping, and only 4.5% is for paddy rice-irrigated, multiple cropping. Mono cropping utilizes the planting of the same crop all year round, allowing the farmers to specialize or
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Among these are the depletion of the topsoil, increasing costs of production and the breaking down of social conditions in rural communities; deterioration in social conditions in a way that when machines are present in the area, the concept of ‘bayanihan’ or communal labor may be disregarded. Because of the negative effects of transitions, people started to think of ways on how to sustain the needs of the present generation without depriving the needs of the future generation. The care of human resources to the natural ones is considered as a social responsibility since people in the community would be the recipient of whatever product the nature has to