Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment in the Humid Tropics (1993) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
The Philippines
The Philippines
Pages 549-624
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 549... ...
Upland inhabitants are primarily poor farming families with insecure land tenure. Subsistence food production rather than forestry is Weir overDennis P
|
From page 550... ...
These reviews examined govern~nent policy, the political climate, and the institutional framework and made numerous specific recommendations for a major reorientation. In addition, the Master Plan for Forestry Development (Department of Environment and Natural Resources, 1990)
|
From page 551... ...
THE STATE OF THE PHILIPPINE UPLAND ECOSYSTEM This section analyzes the important factors that have determined the development of land use systems in the Philippines uplands. The major forces and constraints that directly affect upland agriculture and forestry are emphasized.
|
From page 552... ...
Swedish Space Corporation German LANDSAT Official Forest Cover (1988) Inventorya 1980b 1981C Pine 81 239 227 193 Mossy or unproductive 246 1,681 1,320 1,759 Dipterocarp 6,629 4,403 6,304 6,588 Closed 2,435 1,042 2,940 2,794 Open 4,194 3,361 3,363 3,794 Mangrove 149 175 112 Other 121 Total 7,105 6,323 8,146 8,652 aThe Philippine-German Forest Resources Inventory Project (Forest Management Bureau, 1988)
|
From page 553... ...
Recently, the Swedish Space Corporation (1988) completed a study" the first and only one to cover all types of land uses of the natural vegetation in the Philippines (Table 2~.
|
From page 554... ...
Although the rate of growth of the Philippine population declined slowly from the 1948-1960 period to the 1975-1980 period, the population growth rate remains the highest of any country in Southeast Asia. The current population density is second only to that of Singapore (Population Reference Bureau, 1990~.
|
From page 555... ...
The University of the Philippines Population Institute projects that the upland population will grow at a rate of 2.72 to 2.92 percent during the next 25 years, increasing by the year 2015 to a density of 371 persons per km2, which is a high population for sloping marginal lands. Current and projected trends in the economy, social attitudes, and government commitment to effective delivery of family planning services may succeed in reducing national population growth rates.
|
From page 556... ...
, and landIessness among the agricultural farm population is almost 50 percent (Agricultural Policy and Strategy Team, 1986; Porter and Ganapin, 1988~. Land reform has largely been ineffective in transferring land to the tenant cultivators because of bureaucratic delays and widespread erosion of the spirit of the agrarian reform laws (Carroll, 1983; International Labour Office, 1974; Kerkviiet, 1974; Tiongzon et al., 1986; Wurfel, 1983~.
|
From page 557... ...
The continued decrease in forest area in the 1980s also implies that the area of farmland continues to increase. Thus, the notion of a land frontier based on arable, safely cultivated land is not appropriate for conditions in the Philippines (Cruz and Zosa-Feranil, 1988; Gwyer, 1977; National Economic Development Authority, 1981~.
|
From page 558... ...
Forest cover In 1960 was determined by the straight-l~ne method by using National Economic Council (1959) data for 1957 and Forest Management Bureau (1988)
|
From page 559... ...
, permanent or intensive agriculture, backyard gardens, pastoral systems, or any combination of these. There is no reliable information on the extent of these forms of agriculture or the proportion of shifting cultivation in grasslands or secondary or primary forests.
|
From page 560... ...
has disappeared. The authoritative source of current forest cover data is the Philippine-German Forest Resources Inventory Project (Forest Management Bureau, 1988~.
|
From page 561... ...
Pine forests occupy less than 1 percent of the total land area (Forest Management Bureau, 1988~. Mangrove forests are restricted to coastal fringes and tidal flats and occupy about 139,000 ha (Forest Management Bureau, 1988)
|
From page 562... ...
Wernstedt and Spencer (1967) reported that forest cover declined from about 90 percent of the total land area at the time of the first contact with the Spanish in 1521 to about 70 percent by 1900.
|
From page 563... ...
aData are for commercial forests only. Forest Cover Changes, 1 950-1 987 Since 1950 there has been a continuous decline in forest cover in the Philippines.
|
From page 564... ...
The 1980 forest data are from the Forest Development Center (1985) and the Philippine-German Forest Resources Inventory Project (Forest Management Bureau, 1988)
|
From page 565... ...
Both of these factors must be considered together, along with rural poverty and the open-access nature of forests (Gillis, 1988~. The deforestation process in the Philippines since World War II can be characterized by two major activities: the conversion of primary to secondary forests by logging activities and the removal of secondary forest cover by the expansion of agriculture.
|
From page 566... ...
FDC, Forestry Development Center; FMB, Forest Management Bureau; SSC, Swedish Space Corporation.
|
From page 567... ...
Also, it is much easier for poor farmers to clear secondary forests than it is for them to clear primary forests (Byron and Waugh, 1988~. In an economic sense, logging lowers the costs of clearing the land by settlers (Southgate and Pearce, 1988~.
|
From page 568... ...
It is now generally accepted that commercial forest resources were vastly underpriced throughout the postwar pe
|
From page 569... ...
, the logged area determined from the rates of deforestation were actually higher than the rates where logging was allowed (Schade, 1988~. Postwar discussions of deforestation in the Philippines have tended to blame either loggers or migrant farmers in frontier areas engaged in nontraditional shifting cultivation for the decline in forest cover.
|
From page 570... ...
Permanently Farmed Sloping Lands The major issue in permanently farmed sloping lands is how to sustain and increase farm productivity to improve the welfare of the farm population and thereby reduce the rate of migration into the remaining forested lands. Increase in and sustainability of farm productivity may be achievable through policy reform and technological changes in agricultural activities, but the development of more successful farming systems in sloping settled lands will not eliminate the migratory pressure on forested lands.
|
From page 571... ...
Agricultural technology can provide a crucial, supporting role in solving the forest conversion problem. Progressive policies in forestry, agriculture, land tenure, and general economic development will impinge greatly on the effectiveness and appropriateness of potential technologies.
|
From page 572... ...
By the early 1980s, hedgerow intercropping was advocated by the Department of Agriculture as a technology that was better able to sustain permanent cereal cropping with minimal or no fertilizer inputs and as a soil erosion control measure for sloping lands. The extension of this system among Filipino farmers was encouraged by the work of the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC)
|
From page 573... ...
The lack of secure land tenure was implicated as a constraint to the implementation of this or any longterm land improvement system among tenant farmers or occupants of public lands. Among farmers with secure land tenure, however, the large initial investment of labor, the difficulty in obtaining planting materials, and the technical training and information required for sustained implementation were serious constraints to initiating SALT systems.
|
From page 574... ...
The contour hedgerow concept was applied to the strongly acidic upland soils by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Philippine Department of Agriculture (Fujisaka and Garrity, 1988~.
|
From page 575... ...
of upland rice grown In alleys between hedges of a leguminous tree, Cassia spectabilis, that supplied green leaf manure for the rice crop.
|
From page 576... ...
High levels of biomass production also tend to exacerbate competition for nutrients and water with the adjoining food crops and reduce cereal crop yields (D.
|
From page 577... ...
Natural vegetative filter strips are capable of reducing soil loss at least as effectively as commonly recommended introduced species (Table 9, Paspalum conjugatum treatment)
|
From page 578... ...
Therefore, a substantial effort in both strategic and farmer-participatory research on natural vegetative filter strips is warranted. Cash Crop Production in Hedgerows may also be suitable for the production of perennial cash crops.
|
From page 579... ...
Currently, the use of green leaf manure is insignificant in upland cropping systems. The experience of the past 15 years with alley cropping and the use of contour hedgerows suggests that appropriate solutions must be tailored to the diverse soil and environmental conditions, farm sizes and labor availabilities, markets, and farmer objectives.
|
From page 580... ...
NUTRIENT SUPPLY o ~ _ _ _ External fertilizer use on food crops by upland farmers is seldom important. This is due to their severe capital constraints, transport difficulties, and low returns from fertilizer use.
|
From page 581... ...
PHOSPHORUS AS A CRITICAL CONSTRAINT The acidic upland soils of the Philippines are predominantly finetextured, with organic carbon contents of 2 to 3 percent and with a moderate level of total nitrogen. Phosphorus deficiency is frequently the most limiting nutritional problem (International Rice Research Institute, 1987)
|
From page 582... ...
Multistory cropping systems with a two- or threetiered canopy that may include fruits, vegetables, and food cropsimprove farm income and are observed in some areas. It is unclear whether the planned extension of agrarian reform to the areas planted in coconuts, which was indicated in the 1987 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program legislation, will have any effect in overcoming this land tenure barrier.
|
From page 583... ...
Fast-growing hardwoods such as gmelina are also integrated into contour hedgerow systems. The Master Plan for Forestry Development (Department of Environment and Natural Resources, 1990)
|
From page 584... ...
The Grasslands and Brushlands The most common form of vegetation in the Philippine uplands is grass, predominantly Imperata cylindrica (cogon) or Themeda triandra (samsamong, silibon, or bagocboc)
|
From page 585... ...
An analysis (Swedish Space Corporation, 1988) of Philippine land use estimated the area of pure grassland to be 1.8 million ha, with an additional 10.1 million ha in extensive cultivation mixed with grasslands and brushlands (that is, about 33 percent of the country's land surface)
|
From page 586... ...
The Master Plan for Forestry Development (Depart
|
From page 587... ...
Many poor families are part of a well-organized effort of occupation of forestlands carried out by wealthier individuals who hope to lay claim to the land by paying taxes on it. Under such arrangements, the agricultural inputs of the cultivator may be subsidized by the pseudo-landlord and personal credit may be advanced to the cultivator, or the cultivator may be contracted to plant perennial crops for an agreed price per plant and permitted to grow food crops on the young plantation until the trees become established.
|
From page 588... ...
A tree fallow system for shifting cultivation on the island of Mindoro, which used cuttings of Leucaena that was intercropped with the food crops, allowed development of a tree cover on fallow land after the cropping cycle (MacDicken, 1990~. The value of such systems remains unconfirmed.
|
From page 589... ...
In fact, many plantations were deliberately torched by local people who saw that there was nothing to be gained from the presence of a government plantation in their area. CONTRACT REFORESTATION The overwhelming failure of reforestation efforts managed by the Forest Management Bureau has recently prompted a major redirec
|
From page 590... ...
Because of low profitability and high interest rates, private firms are hesitant to invest their own corporate funds to establish industrial tree plantations (Domingo, 1983; Guiang, 1981~. The funds that the government has designated for this program are largely from international donors, particularly the Asian Development Bank.
|
From page 591... ...
A national research project on the ecology and management of fire could collate the knowledge on the subject that can be provided by indigenous peoples, design a comprehensive framework for investigation, and assist regional and local research teams in undertaking work in this area within the respective land use system research programs. LOCAL ORGANIZATION FOR CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE During the past decade, social forestry research has provided much insight into the complex constraints in the evolution of effective community organizations to sustainably manage local upland resources (Borlagdan, 1990~.
|
From page 592... ...
Saving and Rebuilding the Remaining Natural Forests The commercially exploitable old-growth dipterocarp forests in the Philippines are nearly exhausted. The Master Plan for Forestry Development (Department of Environment and Natural Resources, 1990)
|
From page 593... ...
The change in policy was intended to democratize access to forest resources, generate employment in the uplands, and manage the remaining production forests in a sustainable manner. Under DENR's Master Plan for Forestry Development (1990)
|
From page 594... ...
The CVRP-1 Social Forestry Project (1984-1989) was the first test of the community-based forestry concept (Dugan, 1989~.
|
From page 595... ...
These systems must not be dependent on forest resources. A key need is for investment in village nurseries that will supply perennial and timber seedlings to individuals on a sustained basis.
|
From page 596... ...
Strategic research will need to be complemented with in-depth surveys of the methods of indigenous farmers and evaluations by participating farmers from multiple locations in forests representing wide ecologic gradients. FUTURE IMPERATIVES FOR SUSTAINABLE UPLAND FARMING AND FORESTRY The phenomenal depletion of natural resources in the Philippines reflects major deficiencies in the country's development efforts since its independence in 1946.
|
From page 597... ...
, and the Master Plan for Forestry Development (Department of Environment and Natural Resources, 1990~. The major structural problem in the Philippines has been the inequality of income and wealth.
|
From page 598... ...
As of 1988, only 2.2 percent of publicly owned forestlands were placed under leasehold arrangements; thus, only a fraction of the upland farming population has been affected. The Master Plan for Forestry Development (Department of Environment and Natural Resources, 1990)
|
From page 599... ...
It is essential that local governments realize that the changes in land tenure in the uplands will be to their benefit through taxes, income, and social stability. Therefore, the national government must make provisions for local governments to receive alternative sources of income.
|
From page 600... ...
Permanent small-scale upland farming systems are evolving in the sloping upland areas and are gradually replacing shifting cultivation. Acceleration of the trend toward permanent agricultural systems will fundamentally require simple, effective soil erosion control on open fields by use of vegetation barriers and residue management; mineral nutrient importation to balance the uptake of nutrients by crops and to stimulate greater biological nitrogen fixation; and diversification toward mixed farming systems that include perennials and ruminant animals, in addition to subsistence food crops.
|
From page 601... ...
They also provide a good foundation for soil conservation efforts, so that farmers may subsequently diversify into more labor-intensive hedgerow enterprises, including those that grow perennials, leguminous trees, and improved forages. The importation of mineral nutrients will be essential to the development of sustainable food crop production on permanent farms in the uplands.
|
From page 602... ...
Research on both technical solutions and management systems must be accelerated to provide a sound basis for new directions. Major research efforts will be needed in the following areas: the ecology and management of dipterocarp forests for sustained production, community-oriented forest management, restoration systems for degraded secondary forests, the ecology and management of fire, the impact of policy changes on the supply of wood, and plantation and farm forestry issues.
|
From page 603... ...
/ 7 / ///allo,~ / Forest / Fallow/ /Bush / ~ ·| Integral Taungya | / Stage 4 Stage 3 Stage 2 Stage Labor Intensity FIGURE 6 Evolution of a more integrated approach to sustainable land use in sloping uplands. Farming systems research evolved as a framework for a more comprehensive, multidisciplinary attack on the complex constraints in agroecosystems (Harrington et al., 1989~.
|
From page 604... ...
Kutztown, Pa.: Rodale Institute. SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN THE HUMID TROPICS Forestry Sector Social Forestry | Sustainable Upland | I Farming and Forestry I Agricultural Sector Sustainable Upland Farming within a water catchment area, particularly the interplay between uplands and lowlands.
|
From page 605... ...
The major challenge is to evolve new institutional arrangements that direct research toward the upland ecosystem as a totality. A focus on the Southeast Asian upland ecosystem does not fall within the mandate of any of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
|
From page 606... ...
However, the majority of that land is devoted to agricultural pursuits, not forestry. The development of sustainable upland agricultural systems is a task for which the Department of Agriculture has a much stronger capability.
|
From page 607... ...
It provides a basis for a range of reforms and restructuring that is essential to future forest preservation and sustainable land use systems. The master plan contains unrealistically optimistic projections for trends in forest cover, but it provides a framework for the kind of comprehensive, directed effort that is necessary.
|
From page 608... ...
The national government, however, has the tendency to cancel leases on areas peremptorily, sometimes without due process. Many TLA holders continually fear the cancellation of their leases as political circumstances change, with the consequent loss of their fixed investments in processing plants, infrastructure, and forest development in their areas.
|
From page 609... ...
the implementation of the master plan. If implemented, the master plan would provide for extensive reforestation, continued logging of secondary forests on a commercial scale, and an aggressive integrated social forestry program.
|
From page 610... ...
The master plan assumed a deforestation rate of 88,000 ha/year in 1990. The Philippine-German Forest Resources Inventory Project (Forest Management Bureau, 1988)
|
From page 611... ...
; Def, net deforestation (net loss of natural forest cover)
|
From page 612... ...
The natural forest cover at that time would be 4.90 million ha. This compares with the 5.40 million ha estimated to result from full implementation of the master plan (Table 12~.
|
From page 613... ...
Families that occupy upland farms will have a form of secure land tenure by which they can gain credit to intensify and diversify their farming systems. Perennial and tree cropping systems will be common enterprises and will be integrated with livestock and food crop production.
|
From page 614... ...
1990. Upland rice cultivation using leguminous tree hedgerows on strongly acid soils.
|
From page 615... ...
1977. The Philippines forest resources, 19762026.
|
From page 616... ...
1986. Land Tenure and Resource Use among Upland Farmers.
|
From page 617... ...
Manila, Philippines: Philippine{;erman Forest Resources Inventory Project. Fujisaka, S
|
From page 618... ...
1989. Hedgerow systems for sustainable food crop production on sloping lands.
|
From page 619... ...
1990. Use of "Pump-Priming" Strategy to Enhance the Employment-Regenerating Potential of Agroforestry Development: Experiences from the Philippines.
|
From page 620... ...
1992. Upland rice and maize response in a contour hedgerow system on a sloping acid upland soil.
|
From page 621... ...
Manila, Philippines: National Census and Statistics Office. National Economic Council.
|
From page 622... ...
Pp. 137-147 in Proceedings of the RP-German Forest Resources Inventory Application of Results to Forest Policy, R
|
From page 623... ...
Solna: Swedish Space Corporation. Szott, L
|
From page 624... ...
1910. The Forest Resources of the World.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.