Description and Rationale

Though not known to the others very well, drip irrigation system is a technique that helps plants to grow in hot seasons. It was first developed in Africa in order to make plants survive the hot season so that people could have food and not starve in the hot season. Philippines or at least the Ayta Abellans, the ones living on the rocky mountain will be in great benefit if this was to be introduced to them because they are suffering due to hunger in the hot season. This is the skill that could make them produce crops during the hot season, which they have never dreamt of.

What is the drip irrigation system’s impact on the local ecology and people? Is this just a skill that is effective only when the water is present? Will it bring water to everyone in the village or just the ones that has it? What will be the price of all the materials if we are planning to mass produce this thing? Does the water’s dirtiness affect the growth of pechay and other sorts of food? Are they really efficient in making plants stronger? Will plants be hundred  protected from the sun’s hotness?

Recent observations in Africa show that people are now discarding or trashing this fabulous skill, calling them, “a waste of money”, and “not efficient at all.”(Wong) Our DERT club members made two systems this year. We concluded that it works well especially on pechays. What are the reasons for ignoring this precious skill? How much of these reasons are based on real proofs and conclusions? If beneficial uses of the technology are found, how or what is the best way to introduce this technique to the Ayta Abellens and others in Mountainous Luzon area?

The process will be to research the biology of pechay and ways to construct the drip irrigation system through a search of Internet, literature and the Bible as well as interviewing people that have knowledge about the drip irrigation system’s effect on pechays. These findings will provide enough experience, proofs, theories and research about this system.

The goal of this system will be to provide enough and sufficient amount of petchay and other sorts of food so that Ayta Abellans and the southern Luzoners could survive the heat without suffering from it.

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Biology

Common Names and Synonyms

Classification

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Morphology and Physical Description

Pechay can grow to a maximum size of 20 cm but mostly it grows around 10 cm in length. The leaf shape of this plant is globular, (meaning it’s round) or partly globular. The leaves are arranged as follows: 2 small leaves at the center, 4 medium sized ones surrounding it, and then the 8 biggest leaves surrounding the entire medium sized ones. Their roots are mostly thin, and not long. But some might have the opposite, long ones inside, short ones outside. This means that it grows using fibrous root system, meaning they absorb water by the root’s surface area.

The upper part of the plant is thicker and rounder than below, and it is green on the top and white on the bottom. During the day the leaves spread and stretch in order to obtain the sun’s light and they closes when they become cold at night.

Internally, pechay has three interesting and unique characteristics. First is that this plant contains 98% of pure vitamin C in it and second is that it carries on food production (photosynthesis) twice as fast the normal mustard plant, and third is that the upper part of the pechay is the part where photosynthesis is used to make food. Additionally, the colors of the flowers are either yellow or green, depending on it’s pedigree, the lineage of an organism.

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Getting Food

Pechays are producers, (or heterotrophs) which means that they are self‐feeders, and they donate themselves to the primary consumers like gazelles and plant eaters (herbivores). They produce their food like any ordinary plants by using photosynthesis. They are never found in extreme hot and cold areas because they cannot carry photosynthesis out. That’s why temperate or cold‐tolerant Pechay cultivars prefer temperatures between 13 and 20oC. However cultivars prone to bolting, particularly michihilitypes, may require warmer temperatures. Where temperatures frequently exceed 35oC, tropical or ‘cold‐sensitive’ cultivars need to be grown. Under these conditions temperate cultivars are unlikely to form heads and are susceptible to disease. In general, Pechay can be grown in temperate and tropical climates, given adequate rainfall or irrigation. It is a shallow‐rooted crop and does not tolerate drought. Pechay require deep, well‐drained soil because it is susceptible to root rots. It has been grown successfully on arrange of soil types from light, sandy loams to quite heavy loams. A soil pH of 5.5 to 7 is ideal and lime should be applied if the pH is below 5.5, as calcium and other nutrients may be unavailable to the plants at low pH. Liming may also reduce the effect of clubroot if that diseases present. A fine, well‐prepared, raised bed can help to prevent soil compaction, improve drainage and improve air circulation around the base of the plants, which will reduce the incidence and severity of diseases.

Reproduction

Pechay reproduces, or pollinates asexually when male plants send off their pollen into the air so that they can fly and reach the female plant’s ovary. All this means that pechays have flowers which send off pollen (if male) and receive the pollen (if female). Their flowers develop when they are 21 weeks old. Additionally, the colors of the flowers are either yellow or green, depending on it’s pedigree, a lineage of an organism. After fertilization, when they are ready to be sown, Pechay  are sown directly from seed or transplanted into a fine, well‐prepared, raised seed bed. When sown from seed it is common practice to sow two to three seeds per station 12–15 mm deeping the soil and thin by hand after germination. It is recommend to sow seed at a rate of 500–750g/ha which will give a plant spacing of approximately 35 cm. Common plant spacing are 30 cm between plants and rows, 37.5 cm between plants in the same row and 30 cm between rows to produce heads around one kg and a row spacing of 40 cm with a plant spacing of 35 cm for wong bok and 30 cm for michihili types to produce heads between 1 and 1.8 kg

Environmental Factors

Pechay lives in groups, which means that they are farmed. It lives in the temperature ranging from 25C to 34C. There are some diseases that may use pechay as a host. These include parasitic diseases. The parasites that are known to be harmful to pechay are tomato fruit worms. They say these are the ones that destroy pechay farming every year. The second environmental factor is the temperature. They can survive in the temperature as low as 20c but when it goes below it, and then they will have hard time adjusting to the environment and will be small in size. Also, some of the more important diseases or parasites include the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris which causes black rot, club rot caused by the slime mould fungus Plasmodiophora brassicae, turnip mosaic virus (TuMV),cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV),diamondback moth (Plutellaxylostella) and cabbage aphid(Brevicoryne brassicae). Clubroot is a serious disease of cruciferous plants and Pechays are highly susceptible of. The fungus is soil‐borne enters the plant through the root hairs on young plants or through wounds on the roots or stem, causing the roots to become thick and distorted. Severely affected roots cannot absorb water and minerals from the soil and produce stunted plants which usually fail to produce a marketable head. Clubroot spreads readily through infected seedlings, in water and in soil attached to equipment and the boots of workers. It is a very hardy organism and can survive and remain infectious for at least 20 years in the absence of suitable host.

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Origin and Distribution

Pechays originated from China, inhabiting a vast amount of the land. It has been introduced to Europe and is farmed for people who love the rich bitterness of this plant. There are some who believe that pechay originated from Africa but pechay is from China, that’s for sure.

Importance to People

Survivability and Endangered Status

The recovering power or the resilience of pechay is medium. It has a minimum population doubling time of between 80 days and 90 days. When they are grown, they are either grown for food or for experiment. If they are grown for food, then about 3 to 4 hectares of pechays will be grown, and if not, then it will just be grown in small sized gardens and farms.

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Potential Solutions

Is the drip irrigation system on pechay good or bad?  It has not been established at this point by this researcher whether the drip irrigation system is a effective thing for pechays that is helping with growing pechays or whether it is simply an introduced system that may prove to be a valuable new system.  Further research and field studies about the design and cost for the drip irrigation system are necessary before determining if the drip irrigation system is an asset or liability to the poor families living in the Ayta Abellen and people that live in rocky places.  There seems to be several promising livelihood possibilities that may be able to benefit the poor families living around the Ayta Abellen area of the Southern Luzon. Below are 3 possibilities with an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages for each.   

Possibility 1

POSSIBILITY 1 Mass production of System

From a journal of a local Filipino found in the summer of 2007, there was a fascinating observation, or journal about how Jan and his grandfather at Manila grew pechay using drip irrigation system. They, Jan and his grandfather carefully planned the design to make drip irrigation system and they skillfully made a drip irrigation system using recycled plastic and ropes. Then they made an arch by connecting the tips using ropes and they said it only took two hours to poke hole, tie and make an arch. Looking back, there were at least six of them in their farm. They said that they have two more farms that they are taking care of now. It was also found out that only Jan and his grandfather were making this system.

Advantages: 

1. This made the farmers to get less tired because this system watered the crops automatically without farmers going around watering them. This also made their work a lot more easier because when they wanted to spray vitamins or fertilizers to plants, instead of going around, throwing fertilizer balls and vitamins, they just needed to put vitamins and fertilizers into the buckets so that it would go and get sprayed along with water.