The accent is in the first syllable (BÁ – ngag) to distinguish it from the bangág (ba – NGÁG) that is used to describe a euphoric feeling when one has sniffed shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride). Bángag is the term we use in describing the cracking of parched rice fields due to the onset of dry season.
I remember my late father pointing to our damaged rice field when I was still a small child and say, "When the summer season is long, the rice fields go cracked and dry." When Tatay let go of my hand, I ran forward as I always used to and touch whatever grew in the taramnan (rice field). Hardly had I gotten 20 meters when I felt my foot got trapped in the soil crack making me fall and unable to make another step forward. I had stepped on a large one. My ankle got cut and it hurt so much. That was how I came to know the word bángag.
I hated the bángag not only because it hurt me and blemished my skin. I came to connect it with pain. I associated it also with the wilting of our garden plants, the drying of the creek, and the dusty condition of the feeder road leading to the farm. Whenever I noticed there were bángag in the fields, I became concerned about the rainless months because it would mean no water for the rice plants. How I wished that there is somebody in control of the weather. How I wished, too, there will always be rains to prevent the bángag from forming.
It was only lately that I learned that contrary to what I believed when I was a child the bángag should be associated with something good. Thanks to this El Niño thing. It was in one of the meetings of some government agencies that I heard how we should not be so alarmed or worried if we see parched rice fields—for the cracking up of the land is a very natural process for the maintenance of soil fertility—Mother Nature willed it that way.
A regular guy from the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) talked about aeration and nitrogenization. Here’s what I got from him:
Aeration destroys the harmful bacteria and helps eradicate plant diseases like tungro. It is nature’s way of cleansing the earth of unwanted particles such as disease-causing bacteria. The air that we breathe is composed of 70% nitrogen. Nitrogen is an element needed by plants. Efforts should be made to help nitrogen be embedded in the soil to reach the roots of the plants. Free nitrogen in the air could not penetrate the soil if it is still wet. Free nitrogen can effectively penetrate the soil if the water in it goes scarce.
Natural aeration and nitrogenization occurs when the season is dry. The cracks in the field are where the friendly elements in the air pass through to seek and destroy the bad ones embedded in the soil. Through these cracks also pass the nitrogen that embeds itself in the soil to become food for our rice plants.
We tend to view the long dry season that comes with the el niño phenomenon as a very negative occurrence due to the shortage of water. But we should understand the ways of Mother Nature and view it from the other angle. Some agricultural enthusiasts even advice that people should prepare to deal with the bumper harvest of rice after the El Nino. Mother Earth will be kinder after resting by then, so there will expectantly be a better turn over of crops.
The El Nino also brings good things in as far as farmers are concerned. In the urban areas, however, the phenomenon is sure to bring in problems and diseases brought about by the shortage of water. It is unfortunate that the long dry spell timed itself with the election season and major decisions that have to deal with addressing a potentially calamitous situation should fall on the hands of our politicos. To those of them who believe that there is an impending calamity, no explanation appears to be necessary; and to those who do not, no explanation appears to be possible.
I wish our government agencies involved in agriculture should do more to enlighten us not only about the NEGATIVE but also on the POSITIVE effects of the El Nino phenomenon.
Contemplating on the long, deep cracks that are there in the rice fields during summer, I now understand the more profound reasons why the bángag appears again and again.
The picture above is from Google Home Images.
I remember my late father pointing to our damaged rice field when I was still a small child and say, "When the summer season is long, the rice fields go cracked and dry." When Tatay let go of my hand, I ran forward as I always used to and touch whatever grew in the taramnan (rice field). Hardly had I gotten 20 meters when I felt my foot got trapped in the soil crack making me fall and unable to make another step forward. I had stepped on a large one. My ankle got cut and it hurt so much. That was how I came to know the word bángag.
I hated the bángag not only because it hurt me and blemished my skin. I came to connect it with pain. I associated it also with the wilting of our garden plants, the drying of the creek, and the dusty condition of the feeder road leading to the farm. Whenever I noticed there were bángag in the fields, I became concerned about the rainless months because it would mean no water for the rice plants. How I wished that there is somebody in control of the weather. How I wished, too, there will always be rains to prevent the bángag from forming.
It was only lately that I learned that contrary to what I believed when I was a child the bángag should be associated with something good. Thanks to this El Niño thing. It was in one of the meetings of some government agencies that I heard how we should not be so alarmed or worried if we see parched rice fields—for the cracking up of the land is a very natural process for the maintenance of soil fertility—Mother Nature willed it that way.
A regular guy from the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) talked about aeration and nitrogenization. Here’s what I got from him:
Aeration destroys the harmful bacteria and helps eradicate plant diseases like tungro. It is nature’s way of cleansing the earth of unwanted particles such as disease-causing bacteria. The air that we breathe is composed of 70% nitrogen. Nitrogen is an element needed by plants. Efforts should be made to help nitrogen be embedded in the soil to reach the roots of the plants. Free nitrogen in the air could not penetrate the soil if it is still wet. Free nitrogen can effectively penetrate the soil if the water in it goes scarce.
Natural aeration and nitrogenization occurs when the season is dry. The cracks in the field are where the friendly elements in the air pass through to seek and destroy the bad ones embedded in the soil. Through these cracks also pass the nitrogen that embeds itself in the soil to become food for our rice plants.
We tend to view the long dry season that comes with the el niño phenomenon as a very negative occurrence due to the shortage of water. But we should understand the ways of Mother Nature and view it from the other angle. Some agricultural enthusiasts even advice that people should prepare to deal with the bumper harvest of rice after the El Nino. Mother Earth will be kinder after resting by then, so there will expectantly be a better turn over of crops.
The El Nino also brings good things in as far as farmers are concerned. In the urban areas, however, the phenomenon is sure to bring in problems and diseases brought about by the shortage of water. It is unfortunate that the long dry spell timed itself with the election season and major decisions that have to deal with addressing a potentially calamitous situation should fall on the hands of our politicos. To those of them who believe that there is an impending calamity, no explanation appears to be necessary; and to those who do not, no explanation appears to be possible.
I wish our government agencies involved in agriculture should do more to enlighten us not only about the NEGATIVE but also on the POSITIVE effects of the El Nino phenomenon.
Contemplating on the long, deep cracks that are there in the rice fields during summer, I now understand the more profound reasons why the bángag appears again and again.
The picture above is from Google Home Images.
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