The Lucban Mountain Farm of Lucban, Quezon
The Municipality of Lucban (Bayan ng Lucban) is a second-class municipality in the province of Quezon, Southern Tagalog Region or Region 4-A. Lucban is famous for its annual Pahiyas Festival, which is held every 15th of May in honour of San Isidro Labrador the Farmer. Because of the unique festivities, local and foreign tourist alike flock to this munici
pality every year. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 46,698 people. Several kilometers from the town proper going towards the municipality of Sampaloc, Quezon is the Permaculture-inspired Lucban Mountain Farm. It is a ten (10) hectare farm lot at an altitude of 400 MASL with coconuts and assorted fruit and timber tree species. What is unique about this farm is an existing residual forest of approximately six (6) hectares. The owners have no intention of removing this residual forest in their farm lot. Instead they would like to preserve it, knowing fully well its advantages. For one, it ameliorates the climatic conditions in the area. Another very important advantage of the forest is it conserves water to the extent that there are free-flowing springs year-round and water on the tributaries traversing the property. A one-hectare marsh also collects rainwater runoff. Another consequence of having a residual forest in the area is that it prevents soil erosion and its forest litter enriches the soil, an important factor because the owners are into organic farming. And of course, it is a biodiversity conservation site. That no stumps of big trees were found in the area shows that the trees had been logged before. Only a few trees were found to have a diameter class of more than 40 cm in diameter at breast height (dbh), indicating that it is a residual forest, meaning that the trees growing in the area were either planted there by the birds and animals through their droppings, or could have been disseminated by wind. An example of which is mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), an exotic species. The seeds of mahogany are winged, hence, it could have been carried there by wind. Another winged fruit are the fruits of Shorea species , the white lauan and the red lauan) of the Dipterocarp family. Fruits of other tree species with big seeds and thick shell which are not digested by animals like the lumbang (Aleuretis mollucana) of the family Euphorbiaceae could have been brought there by wild pigs through their droppings. Other species found in the area are introduced or were planted there by the owners like mangosteen, durian, ipil, mulberry, and Madre de Agua or Trichantera, to name a few. With the interest to know the different species in the area, an inventory was conducted with the help of foresters of DENR- CENRO, Talipan, Pagbilao, Quezon who conducted the inventory on weekends. The inventory shows that there are a total of seventy nine (79) tree species (woody plants) and six (6 ) non-woody plants belonging to the family palmae that are growing in the area., The first ten (10) dominant species are lamog, lanete, kulis, makaasim, tibig, salab, takip-asin, batino, malapapaya, and salingugon. There are also some twelve (12) species that are introduced in the area. Except for forage legumes like Madre de Agua, Flemingia, Rensonii, Moringa, Indigofera, and Pak Chong whose leaves are a good source of feeds, the rest are indigenous but were planted in the area because of their economic importance, like the mangosteen, durian, cacao, and mabolo or kamagong.There are also species belonging to the palmae family and among them are coconut or niyog, kaong, anahaw, giant fern, and bamboo or kawayan. Aside from protecting and conserving the forest, the farm has naturally farmed pigs in an ordorless environment - Babuyang Walang Amoy. The pigs are fed with fresh forage legumes and the edible leaves of the Langka and Tibig trees, and a feed mixture of rice bran, fermented forage, fish meal, molasses, indigenous microorganisms, molasses, and copra meal. The pigs' bedding is composed of carbonized rice hulls, sawdust, salt, and soil and is regularly sprayed with indigenous microorganisms to make it decompose swiftly. This becomes a rich source of fertilizer which is used on the coconut trees. vegetable garden is now being prepared in order to utilize the decomposed pig bedding further.
