The soil quality in the upper portion is loosened and infertile during prolonged heat, extreme rainfall and La Nino while it becomes dusty and cracked during extreme heat. During extreme rainfall and prolonged rainfall, the soil becomes wetter and loosened and in the upper portion of the Mt. Isarog watershed area, the soil are carried away making the soil less fertile in the upper portion and more fertile in the lower portion of the watershed area. The effect of extreme heat to soil quality is similar to the upper and lower portion of Mt. Isarog giving similar impacts to crops particularly to vegetables and rice. Abaca,coconuts and root crops which are more abundant in the upper portion are not affected by the cracking of soil because their roots are deep and they can still absorb water from the underground. The early onset of rain improves soil quality in the upper Isarog and favors the planting for all kinds of crops but the soil in the lower portion is muddy making the soil unfavorable for planting. During LaNina,strawberry gutter system lots of soil are washed out in the upper portion but soil quality in the lower portion of the watershed area is better.
A few of them also grow root crops but just the same root crops are also affected by the cracking and dryness of the land. This poor soil quality affects production for the inability of the crops to absorb water and the nutrients. The upland area is likewise affected by the cracking and drying of the soil particularly the root crops grown in Abucayan, Tagongtong, and Pinaglabanan,The coconuts and abaca grown in Hiwacloy and Digidgon are also affected by the extreme heat but because they have deep rooting system, they can surviveat this season. Coconuts, abaca and root crops can survive and are resilient to extreme rainfall so farmers of this kind are not affected.The upland farmers favor the advent of extreme rainfall because most of their crops are rain dependent and excessive water is not actually felt is the area because water flows freely downhill. Only the vegetables and rice farmers in the lowland area are the most affected by the oversupply of water. Vegetables and rice farmers in the upland area still favors the extreme rainfall. As observed,farmers in both the upland and lowland watershed area lack the farming technologies and innovations to help them cope with extreme weather like the use of mulching, aquaculture, hydroponics, micro-irrigation system, rainwater harvester and similar modern agriculture practices.
Farmers may be provided with technical knowledge on soil quality to help them understand better soil quality and how to deal with them in moments of climate variability. The impact of extreme heat is more felt in the upland area than in the lowland area. Root crops, hydroponic fodder system abaca and coconuts which are mostly grown in the upland area are favorable to upland famers because of better production indicating a better income to upland farmers. But for the lowland farmers, vegetable farming is not advisable at this climatic condition because of poor yield and low income. Rice farming has no income at all. This impact is true to both the lowland and upland farmers but the greater negative impact is experienced in the upland areas.
The negative impact of the typhoon is observed in both the lowland and upland area. But the upland farmers are more vulnerable. Whereas, the delay onset of rainy days has no effect on all kinds of crops in both the upland and lowland area. The income of the farmers in the upper portion of Mt. Isarogis affected both positively and negatively. While some farmers like the abaca,coconut and vegetable farmers are earning good income from their crops, the root crop farmers are losing their income due to the poor growth and quality product of the crops. During El Nino, the same effect is true to vegetables and upland rice farmers. The lowland rice farmers still enjoy the benefit of good harvest and good income at this climate condition.The impact of extreme heat is more observed in the upper portion of Mt. Isarog affecting abaca, coconuts and vegetables but not to root crops like camote . In the lowland area, the negative impact of extreme heat is more evident to vegetables and rice due to pest infestation and scarcity of water.