Soils and Topography

Buguias has diverse soils. Before the war, dry fields had been limited to clay areas, which alone would support year-round cultivation. But the postwar transition gave all soils agricultural utility. Indeed, light soils are now often preferred during the typhoon season, since they drain readily and are always friable. Heavy soils are now disparaged as difficult to cultivate, and, since they easily waterlog, they may be left unplanted in the rainy season. Chemical fertilizers and imported chicken manure obviate concern for soil fertility, and even sterile subsoil horizons exposed by mass wasting—or on purpose—can be profitably farmed. Indeed, the very diversity of soils has allowed the Buguias growers to develop complex and flexible cropping strategies.

The main soil types of Buguias, by local classification, are as follows:

Loboy: A heavy loam found in flat areas; favored for umas. Often rich in organics.

Komog: Weathered dioritic rock; an infertile and light subsoil.

Lagan: "Mountain sand"; sterile, very light.

Tapo: Alluvial silt; very fertile, of medium weight and water retention qualities. Good for umas but previously little used because of potential flooding.

Oplit: Clay soil; good for umas, but very hard to work. Good nutrient and water-holding capacity. Usually found in flat areas and depressions.

Liang: "Red clay" subsoil. Avoided in the past; very low fertility.

(Most soils are of hybrid form. The best uma soils, for instance, are those with a high clay component, but not necessarily pure oplit. Many farmers favored an oplit-loboy mixture for their uma fields.)

Having adopted a diverse vegetable agriculture, the growers of Buguias have to consider more than just fertility, moisture retention, and drainage when selecting a cropping medium. Subsoils (komog, liang ) are now valued because one can easily build a quasi terrace simply by removing the overburden and exposing the lower-soil horizons until a flat space emerges. Given its light, friable texture, one can harvest a good crop on a komog bench even during the wettest months. And liang, always avoided in the past, is now valued for the ruddy appearance it imparts to carrots and potatoes.

Truck farming also allowed the cultivation of topographic zones previously considered nonarable. Steep slopes are now favored for wet-season root crops, and shady northern exposures are valued for lettuce in the dry season. Even the alluvial deposits along the small streams of eastern Buguias can now be farmed, yielding especially large harvests if check-dams are constructed to trap additional sediment. But this is a risky strategy, since a single typhoon can destroy an entire field. But with the change to vegetable farming, Buguias residents became professional risk-takers; their agricultural endeavor, as they perceive it, is now one of continual gambling.