(First of three parts)
IN the 1980s, I spent a few years in Sagada, Mountain Province. Saturdays were colorful and were considered as a day of adventure for my young daughters. As the sun rises, they will see women walking toward the center of town balancing their baskets on their heads cushioned by bright bandanas.
It’s a day of surprises as one can only guess what new discoveries the baskets contain: wild mushrooms, native vegetables, mountain tea, some neighborhood or exotic craft. Summer months would yield wild blueberries gathered from Lake Dannum for only P20 a basket.
But my most curious discovery was the fish they called yu-yu which I was initially averse to as they looked like slimy, small snakes. But my good friend, Muriel, stayed over once and fried them crisp for me. Since then, I was hooked. I would wait for the young boys in the neighborhood who would offer them for P20 in small baskets or cans.
The loach or yu-yu is called dojo by the Japanese who first introduced this in the Cordillera region. It is popularly known as the “weather loach” due to its ability to detect changes in barometric pressure and react by swimming frantically or standing on its end, according to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in the Cordillera region (BFAR-CAR). So, like a weather forecast, the loach becomes more active when a storm is approaching.
In a landlocked region such as the Cordillera, the yu-yu is an important source of protein and its popularity quickly spread in the rice terraces of Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga and Mountain Province. The yu-yu was in fact a major source of protein until the drastic drop in catch in recent years.
The lowest catch was recorded at 2,960 metric tons in 2004. In 2009 the per capita consumption of the yu-yu fish in the Cordillera reached 28 kilograms.
BFAR-CAR has embarked on more projects focused on the culture of caged or pond species such as tilapia, carp, mudfish, pangasius (also known as cream dori) to improve the sufficiency of fish protein sources in the region. It seems that the yu-yu was not preferred as the fish species feeds on available food in their environment and thrives and multiplies on their own.
The change in farming practices such as the use of pesticides, rotation of rice with non-terrestrial crops such as cabbage and beans, predators and increased food demand affect the yu-yu. In the 1990s farmers using chemicals to control giant earthworms that infested rice terraces contributed to the rapid decline of the fish species.
The Japanese in the Cordillera
Tracing the origins of the yu-yu will unravel stories related to building Baguio, World War II and the Japanese occupation.
“[The Japanese] created a school, an association, a farming cooperative, neighborhood groups and trucking enterprises. Theirs is a small band of Japanese strangers who came to this faraway place a hundred years ago to help lay out a road into the highlands,” said Paul Joseph Naval as quoted in an article which came out in the book titled Cordillera Crossover: A Japanese Legacy, written by Baguio-born Smithsonian researcher and historian Patricia Afable.
“In the three decades that followed, they built many bridges that crossed not only the Bued River’s rocky gorges, but also spanned the distant worlds of many Philippine and Japanese families, cultures and communities,” the article read.
Teruji Okubo, known to be a maestro builder from Hiroshima, built numerous establishments in Baguio and neighboring provinces. He also started a vegetable farm in Santo Tomas in the late 1920s where he built a large pond and loaded it with carp and dojo, or the Japanese loach called yu-yu.
But others believe that the Japanese may have bred them increasingly in rice terraces as food source in anticipation of the war that was to come.
An old tale also recounts how the yu-yu reached Ifugao. It was said that Wakit married a woman from Hapao, Hungduan, where they carried a bottle of the fish species on their
return home. They let the yu-yu play in the rice terraces where the fish multiplied and spread to other rice terraces of their neighbors.
As the highland is landlocked, this fish was readily accepted by the people. From 1937 to 1952, the yu-yu easily reached the rice terraces of other highland provinces. Ifugao natives caught yu-yu in the wild and started exporting this to Japan by 1970.
This oriental weather fish likes rivers, lakes, ponds, swamps and rice fields. They survive extreme cold weather by hibernating in mud 2 to 10 inches deep.
In the olden days, villagers said they would place their bamboo woven traps called bubo containing boiled sweet potatoes (camote), purple yam (ube), and cooked rice in the opening of trap used to catch the yu-yu. The trap would then be filled with the fish species.
Today, Mary Carling from Sagada who operates the community radio station, said she no longer sees yu-yu sold in the market.
To be continued
(Second of three parts)
The loach or yu-yu was officially brought by the Japanese to the Trinidad Fish Farm (now Benguet State University) in 1931. The freshwater loach, once abundant in the rice terraces of the Cordillera region, is now facing extinction. A young Japanese fish culturist, Juri Watanabe, however, has launched efforts to save the fish species.
Watanabe noted that the yu-yu burrows into rice terraces and takes a little effort to gather. Because of this, farmers have resorted to putting pesticides in paddy waters, poisoning the fish. The dead fish that float to the surface are then gathered for home consumption.
“This makes the yu-yu dangerous to eat, aside from the fact that it kills the loach population,” said Watanabe.
She is currently stationed in Mayoyao, Ifugao and is working on a project to save and propagate the near-extinct yu-yu. Watanabe brought with her a technology used by the Japanese to increase their own population of the loach.
Watanabe noted that the yu-yu is the most expensive fish in Mayoyao, selling at about P150 per kilo. Because it is increasingly becoming rare, the yu-yu already commands a high price. From about P30 in the 1980s, it now fetches a price of P500 per kilo or P250 for a small bottle.
Saving the loach
To propagate the yu-yu, Watanabe disclosed that the first step is to prepare breeding areas in the rice fields. The old water is drained to get rid of the predators of the young loach. Fertilizers—in the form of compost, manure and grass—are added to the area to produce planktons and attract small insects, which are eaten by the loach.
In about 10 days she said the planktons would have increased, turning the water green, which would indicate that it’s time to start breeding the yu-yu. Spawning hormones are injected into the stomach of female breeders, which have smaller fins. The injected breeders are then transferred to the spawning net and 24 hours after, they start to lay eggs.
The eggs would hatch for another 24 hours. Some loaches are left in an observational box where plankton-rich water gathered from the breeding area is poured.
The male-female ratio for breeding is four males to a female, Watanabe explained. One female can lay up to 10,000 eggs at a time.
Mayoyao has a fish hatchery but Watanabe said it needs to be repaired and reconstructed because the irrigation was destroyed many years back. Her mission is to raise yu-yu breeders and fingerlings and distribute them to farmers.
Currently, she is training four farmers to kick-start propagation efforts. Watanabe also aims to give breeding workshops to other farmers.
She said yu-yu breeders have been hard to find in Mayoyao. The 3,000 mixed male and female breeders she uses were mostly gathered from far-flung barangays.
The loach can be gathered when they grow to about 6 grams. They grow to about 20 centimeters in two or three years.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in the Cordillera Administrative Region (BFAR-CAR) has also scaled up efforts to save and propagate the loach. Efforts have been focused on Ifugao, particularly the municipality of Hungduan, for research and for mass production.
In 2006 Hungduan adopted the yu-yu as one of its main products under the Department of Trade and Industry’s “One Town, One Product” (Otop) prgram. This was done as a way to preserve the rice terraces and to ensure its steady supply. In 2008 the BFAR turned over to Hungduan a municipal hatchery.
The municipality was also one of the areas identified by the Food and Agriculture Organization-Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GHIAS). Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Regional Director Clarence Baguioat said one of the ways to save the rice terraces is to stamp its products, including the loach, with the GHIAS seal. This will certify the yu-yu as an organic product, affirm its heritage value and make it attractive to both the local and global market.
Aside from using the fish to make tempura, locals in Hungduan process the yu-yu as pastillas, yu-yu moon cookies, “choco-loachstick,” “camote-loach delights” and “crunchy jokies.”
Together with Japanese firm Argos, the BFAR trained farmers on induced breeding in 2010. This is in line with the goal of Japan to help farmers prop up production the yu-yu and enable farmers to export. Japan’s yu-yu supply has also been declining due to use of chemicals in farming.
Locals have also resorted to innovative practices to help save the loach. For one, the “Golden Apple” or “Golden Kuhol” preys on the yu-yu. Ester Humiding, a farmer Hapao, Hungduan, found that removing in rice fields will allow the propagation of the fish species in her rice ponds.
Farmers in Hungduan have found a way to make use of the snails they collect. They were able to produce pulvoron and moon cookies. They also raised ducks, which eat the snails and other predators of the loach.
(Conclusion)
While the cultivation of fish in rice fields or rice-fish culture has only been practiced in Ifugao for a few decades, this farming method has been in existence for thousands of years. In fact, the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GHIAS) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has identified several rice-fish agriculture heritage sites, particularly in China.
For one, Longxian Village in China’s Zhejiang province is a GHIAS site. Its integrated rice-fish farming system helps protect the environment as it calls a reduction in the use of pesticides to control weeds and insects that serve as food for the fish. The farming system also reduces labor cost as the fish makes the soil ready for rice planting.
In the Philippines, Hungduan in Ifugao was chosen as a GHIAS site. GHIAS sites pertain to areas where tried and tested farming techniques and practices have been practiced, resulting in food security and the preservation of ecology and biodiversity. According to FAO standards, GHIAS sites have resulted in outstanding landscapes, preservation of farming biodiversity, valuable cultural heritage, and resilient ecosystems.
Experts said propagating the yu-yu will contribute to the preservation of the Banaue rice terraces. The rice terraces, which were carved by hand 2,000 years ago, have been recognized as one of the world’s treasures for its beauty and efficient irrigation system.
In Hungduan the presence of loach in the rice terraces complement organic farming, particularly the cultivation of vanishing traditional rice varieties. When Hungduan decided to increase the production of the yu-yu under the government’s “One Town, One Product” Program in 2006, there was an immediate 22-percent increase in rice yields.
This is because the loach, described as a “nervous fish,” burrows into the mud and aerates the soil. The fish also provides natural fertilizer to standing palay crops.
Aside from its benefits to rice, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said the yu-yu is also very nutritious. The loach has crude fiber, protein and calcium.
To encourage the propagation of the loach, the BFAR established hatcheries in La Trinidad, Benguet; Kiangan, Ifugao; and Tabuk, Kalinga, to meet the fingerling requirements of farmers.
The BFAR has also conducted trials at the La Trinidad fish farm and Taloy Sur, Tuba, Benguet, to help farmers better manage loach production.
Experts said encouraging the production of loach strengthens communities as farmers become mindful of the need for good agricultural practices such as avoiding chemicals to keep the rice terraces free from toxins. After all, it is the sense of community which drove the Ifugao people to build the breathtaking Banaue rice terraces.