An e-publication by the World Agroforestry Centre
CONSERVATION FARMING ON SLOPING LANDS:
Summary and Highlights from a Roving Workshop
(Misamis oriental Province, Mindanao, philippines)
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An e-publication by the World Agroforestry Centre |
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CONSERVATION FARMING ON SLOPING LANDS: |
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Annex 5: Claveria Field Site Notes Briefing Material for the Field Tour to the Conservation Farming Sites in Claveria during the Roving Workshop on Conservation Farming on Sloping Claveria is an agricultural town located 42 kilometers northeast of Cagayan de Oro City. It occupies more than 112, 000 hectares of the upland areas of the province of Misamis Oriental, and the only land locked among the 24 towns. Elevation ranges from 450 to 1200 meters above sea level with undulating to steeply slopes predominate the terrain (92%). Maize, cassava, and upland rice cropping dominate the lower elevation (<700masl), while vegetables and maize in rotation dominate the upper elevation. It is the vegetable bowl of Misamis Oriental exporting different varieties of vegetable to Cebu and Manila markets. Gmelina arborea, Cassia mangium, Sweitienia spp, and Eucalyptus spp are commonly introduced fast growing timber tree species Claveria landscape is derived from pyroclastic parent materials deposited by two volcanoes, Mt. Balatocan and Mt. Mogabon, which are positioned 15-20 km north and southeast of the town center, respectively. This town is a volcanic plateau ascending abruptly from sea level on the west to about 450 to 1200 meters elevation in the east. Local topography is complex, ranging from flat to steeply hilly, and from broad smooth terrain to extremely dissected landscape. The soils are deep, fine mixed isohyperthermic Ultic Haplorthox. Soils are acidic with pH ranges from 4.2 to 5.2. Rainfall is approximately 2500 mm per year well distributed during the 9-month period from May to January. Farm sizes presently ranges from 0.25 to 5.0 ha, averaging 3.0. Ownership is common among large farmers (more than 3.2 ha.). Tenancy or leasehold is common among small farmers. There is intense pressure on flat lands. Clean cultivated fields, tilled with animal power extend to the steepest slopes thus causing severe farm level soil erosion, which ranges from 50 to 250 tons per ha. per year. The amount of fallow has been rapidly decreasing. Fallow rotation has yielded to permanent field farming. Cool temperature, tranquil environment, beautiful landscapes and beautiful friendly and lovely people attract visitors to the place. Hills and mountains are perfect to the eyes. One of the important places to see is the delightful "El Canyon Grande San Miguel" in barangay Panampawan which is a 500-meter escarpment of the Cabulig river, and provides a good vista to the other side of marvelous river facing toward the terrain of extended grasslands to the national park of Mts.Balatucan, Mogabon, Lumot and Sumagaya.
Conservation farming on sloping lands has been the main focus of research activities in Claveria. This aims to provide simple and low-cost alternative conservation farming technologies to the sloping upland farmers who are experiencing rapid soil fertility depletion and low productivity caused by soil erosion and other soil nutrient depletion mechanisms (e.g. crop removal, fixation, leaching, etc.) and inherently poor soil. Research activities have been geared toward evaluating or assessing pathways toward sustainability on sloping lands. These research activities include:
The establishment of the natural vegetative filter strips provides a foundation for the farmers to establish perennials (fruit and timber trees, pineapples, forage legumes and grasses, etc.) and ruminants on the farms that diversify plant species and make farming enterprise stable. Diversity provides stability in terms of productivity, ecologically and farmers' income.
Testing of practical model of technology transfer that create impact on the adoption and adaptation of conservation technologies is important. A model that can be replicated in other upland areas. There are conditions necessary for the rapid dissemination and adoption of conservation farming technologies:
Impact assessment on different approaches (evolution) of technology dissemination are underway such as:
Landcare is a participatory community-based approach and grounded model designed to effect change in complex and diverse situations. Landcare approach is a method to rapidly and inexpensively diffuse agroforestry practices among upland farmers. It is based on the farmers' innate interest in learning and sharing knowledge about new technologies that earn more money and conserve natural resources. It is basically a group of people, concerned about land degradation problems, who are interested in working together to do something positive for the long-term health of the land. The core of the Landcare model is two fold-effective local community groups and partnership with government This grassroots approach is generally recognized as a key to success in all community development activity. Groups are to respond to the issues that they see as locally important, solving problems in their own way. In other words, Landcare depends on self-motivated communities responding to community issues, not issues imposed by external agency. Approaches, which use grounded theory (where participants determine the key issues rather than these being pre-determined), are more likely to effect permanent change. Landcare groups are usually supported by government and are networked to ensure ideas and initiatives are shared and disseminated (Campbell and Seipen, 1996). This partnership between local communities. Conservationists, government and scientists working together to change the way the land is used is another key feature of Landcare. The partnership developed allows differing, and sometimes conflicting perspective to be aired on issues, which are inherently complex.
ICRAF has initiated the dissemination activities in late 1996 when it responded to farmers' request for technical assistance in laying out conservation farming. This technical and institutional innovations has led to the formation of 56 Landcare groups within the 17 barangays in Claveria. Most of these Landcare groups are based in the sitio or neighborhood where farmers can interact with each other more frequently, and even meet each other almost daily. Each sitio has 30-60 farming families. These Landcare groups have caused the adoption of conservation practices based on natural vegetative filter strips (NVS) to about a thousand farmers, establishment of 143 communal and individual nurseries that produce hundreds of thousands of fruits and timber trees seedlings which are planted on the NVS, or along farm boundaries. They were also able to get funding for 75 working animals for dispersal to the members with no working animals. The greatest success of Landcare is changing the mindset of the farmers and policymakers or the local government or some landowners on the way they use the land and protect the environment. The success of Landcare movement is not just the length and number of NVS laid out, number of nurseries established, the number of seedlings raised and the number of its members. However, these are ones of the indicators but not the ultimate ones. Landcare movement is rebuilding the minds, attitudes and practices of all the stakeholders of the resource base such as farmers, policymakers, government and the people in general on the use of the land that will meet the current basic needs of man like food, clothing shelter, education, etc while preserving the land for the future generation to come. The Landcare members have this contagious efforts and mindset that everybody should protect the land. There are now farmers who have done unselfishly movement, and who was able to share the conservation farming to other in his neighborhood. Farmer who enthusiastically led his people to disseminate the conservation farming, nursery activities and the benefit of tree planting. Farmers who have been pushing training in the barangay and down to the sitio level. Farmer leaders who volunteered his time for free just to share his time and talent for the cause of Landcare. On the policymaker side, I am breathlessly watching them formulating ordinances urging sloping farmers to adopt soil conservation measures, and allocating from the municipal and barangay funds from their regular internal revenue allocation (IRA) to fund conservation farming activities and establishment of nurseries. These are ones of the important indicators of success of Landcare approach that enable the people to think, initiate and implement plans and programs that will lead to adoption of conservation farming. The establishment of NVS is the first step in the long journey of Landcare. We are very lucky that we have found a simple technology that does not scare away the prospective Landcare members. Once they have this first step, they are likely to go on to further steps like establishment of perennials (fruit and timber trees), fodder grasses, and even sharing the wonderful technology to other farmers This effort becomes contagious and never ending process until all the farmers will put conservation farming practices and even put more steps towards improving their livelihood through the adoption of agroforestry practices, and meeting their current basic needs while preserving the land and the environment, and will eventually perform activities that have a common benefits (e.g. riparian management, watershed management, etc.).
Site 1. Smallholders timber tree production systems The substantial increase in the number of trees on private land is happening elsewhere in Asia. In countries such as Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand smallholders, even shifting cultivators, are now engaging in farm forestry for the first time in great numbers. But in many parts of the Philippines, farming and land use practices are in transition. In response to certain physical and socioeconomic factors, upland farmers have been making a fundamental change from extensive forms of agriculture (shifting cultivation or rotational slash and burn) to more intensive short rotation or permanent farming practices. Since the imposition in the late 80's of a complete logging moratorium on all primary forest, small-holder timber tree production has emerged across the country in response to the market demand. Today, timber trees like Gmelina arborea, Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) and Acacia mangium are grown usually as farm boundaries, on contour hedgerows or as pure stand. These systems have been designed to meet a range of challenges posed by rapid intensification and deforestation of agricultural land to protect soil and water resources, increase wood resources, replace harvested tree products and inputs with planted trees, and increase food and livelihood security for rural households. Therefore, this study aims at assessing and improving the timber production systems by smallholders, in order to understand the existing constraints to tree planting, to evaluate the potentials of timber tree based agroforestry systems, and to optimize farm productivity. The overall aim of this is to understand and quantify the biophysical and socio-economic processes involved in timber tree production systems by small-scale farmers on sloping lands and their improvement. In Claveria it has been observed the existence of a number of household nurseries growing a variety of timber and fruit trees that has been established without outside support. Household nurseries have a great potential for the widespread adoption of tree planting practices. In order to gather data on the germplasm delivery pathways, potentials and constraints to adoption and successful management of these spontaneous nurseries, a survey and data gathering will be carried out based on a chain sampling. In addition, in order to compare group nurseries and household nurseries, a number of community nurseries managed by the farmer's association Claveria Land Care Association (CLCA) will be closely monitored. Data to be gathered include labor inputs, outputs and advantages and disadvantages perceived by farmersand the evolution of nursery activities practiced by key members and selected participants through a multivisit survey.
Tree arrangement trial In the smallholder context timber, tree planting has two special features that make it different from traditional forestry plantations:
Therefore, the main hypothesis identified is: if properly managed timber trees established in hedgerows or lines is superior to tree/crop monoculture in terms of:
This experiment is laid out in randomized complete block design with 4 replication in 2 farmer's fields.
So far, pruning of timber trees has received little attention as an appropriate agroforestry management practice. While many studies are available on the impact of pruning on timber tree growth, there are few studies on the effect of high intensity lift pruning on tree growth in the context of agroforestry. In Claveria, timber trees are frequently lift pruned up to 80-90% of the tree height leaving a 10-15 cm. stub from the main stem. Motives of farmers for this high intensity pruning are, to achieve a straight stem and better quality of wood, to eliminate competition with crops and for firewood. Lack of proper tools and know-how are commonly seen as constraints to improved pruning practices. It is perceived that there is a need to improve pruning practices. There is a need to understand the suitability of the current management system and to suggest sustainable lopping levels. These can be achieved by understanding the effect of looping intensity on tree growth and productivity. The study aims to test the different levels of pruning regimes to the growth of select timber trees (Eucalyptus deglupta and Gmelina arborea). This experiment is conducted in 3 sites in a total of 4 replications.
Most woodlots in Claveria are devoted to Gmelina arborea. Establishment and management practices usually involves: plantation at 2 x 2m or 3 x 3m. with 1 or 2 intercrops; pruning for the first 2 to 3 years and harvesting those largest dominant and subdominant trees with merchantable size after a rotation period of 7-10 years. After this "selective harvest", farmers expect suppressed remaining trees to reach commercial size in the following years. But silviculture on even-aged stands show us that once the crown of a tree has been reduced in size by the competition of its more vigorous neighbors it cannot always be restored to dominant position by cultural treatment. This situation will lead to low return to farmers and discouragement to plant again. Therefore there is a need to show the benefits of thinning in growth and yield of timber trees. There are 3 levels of thinnings: 1- no thinning (control), 2- 20% of the trees removed, and 3- 40% of the trees removed. This is based on the original planting density by the farmers of 2 by 2 meters.
Tunggol estate is a 480-hectare of land owned by Mr. Tunggol. This was used a ranch until 1985 during the height of communist insurgency problem in Claveria. The land was offered for sale (VOS) to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in 1991. The DAR subsequently distributed the lands to landless farmer. The farm sizes range from 1.0-5.0 hectares. The earlier occupants were able to get bigger piece of land than the later ones. Soil erosion was identified by the farmers a major constraints to sustainable production of their sloping farms. There were couples of spontaneous adoptions as an offshoot to IRRI and ICRAF conservation farming research activities. When ICRAF opened its door to technical backstopping for sloping farmers to adopt and adapt soil conservation farming based on natural vegetative filter strips (NVS), request for technical assistance were many and some of the farmers came from this place. This prompted ICRAF to organize the contour hedgerow extension (CHET) team. CHET team is consist of: extension technician from municipal agriculture, ICRAF field staff (part-time basis), and inspirational farmer adopter. Tunggol estates were one of the places where CHET team worked. When Landcare group was organized in late 1996, farmer beneficiaries formed themselves into Tunggol estate Landcare group. They elected their set of officers. In the beginning there were 5 members. Later on, the membership expanded, and the group was split into 2: tunggol 1 and tunggol 2. When the municipal federation was formed with 6 original Landcare groups, a member of this Landcare was elected as President. This Landcare group was the first to establish communal nursery in early 1997. They were able to raise seedlings of timber trees particularly Eucalyptus spp. The seedlings were distributed among members of the Landcare groups. The communal nursery provided a venue for the members to learn the nursery establishment and management. After they have learned, they opted to have their nurseries at their backyards. They observed that they can produce better quality of seedlings and with less labor because they don't have to walk to the communal nursery anymore. And besides they have the sense of security of the seedlings. Almost all of the sloping farmers in the Tunggol estates have adopted the natural vegetative strips where they enriched the NVS by planting timber trees, fruits, pineapple, fodder grasses and other cash perennials. These different species are interplanted to each to ensure diversity and stability. Most of the farmers who adopted the system felt the value of their lands have gone up because of the established soil and water conservation measures and cash perennials. They are confident that they have the long term productivity and sustainability of their farms. They felt that food has been secured in their families, and hopefully when they can harvest the fruits of the cash perennials will alleviate their poverty. There are now about 50 conservation farming adopters around tunggol estate in which they laid out the NVS as the initial step. They later enriched the NVS by planting fodder grasses and legumes, timber and fruit, and cash perennials. Fodder grasses include Napier grass (Penniseturn purpureum), Setaria (Setaria splendida), Guinea grass (Panicum maximum), etc. Forage legumes include Flemingia (Flemingia congesta), Rensoni (Desmodium rensonii), etc. Timber trees are: Bagras (Eucalyptus deglupta), Mahogany (Sweitinia macrophylla), Yemane (Gmelina arborea), Ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala), Cassia mangium, etc. Fruit trees are: Durian (Durio zibeththenus), Rambutan (Nephelium appaceum), Marang (Artocarpus odoratissima), Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), Guavas (Psidium guavaja), Mango (Mangifera indica), etc. Cash perennials are: coffee (Coffea spp.), Cacao (Theobroma cacao), Pineapple (Ananas comosus), Bamboo (Bambusa arundinacea), Rubber (Hevea brasilienses), Bananas (Musa sapientum) etc. There are communal and household nurseries that raise seedlings of fruit and timber trees.
Mahayahay is one of the 8 sitios of barangay Ani-e. This sitio consist of households. Most of these farm families are beneficiaries of the comprehensive agrarian reform program (CARP) of DAR. The land is degraded grasslands formerly owned by Geronimo Gerin who used these lands as grazing. Mr. Gerin removed his stocks during the height of NPA fighting in 1985, and offered for sale (VOS) to the DAR. The DAR subsequently distributed to the farmers. In these acid and degraded sloping lands, farmers faced several problems in producing crops from these lands. Soil erosion is one of the major problems in sustaining crop production. The Mahayahay Landcare group was organized when 3 out of 42 household members joined the one-day cross visit and short training conducted by ICRAF in late 1996. The 3 participants established the NVS on part of their farms. These 3 were the core people who initiated and invited other farmers to join the Landcare group. After few months the membership rose to 8. Since they were excited to plant timber trees, they established their communal nursery in middle of 1997. They produced substantial number of seedlings, and most of the seedlings were planted on the NVS. But unfortunately, during the E1 Niño (almost 6 months of drought) most of these seedlings died. When the barangay captain saw the exciting development which is also in line with the Human and Ecological Security (HES) and Clean and Green programs of the local government, he Mr. Matugas (Mr. Virgilio Matugas -president) to facilitate the formation of Landcare group to the other 7 sitios in the barangay Ani-e. Mr. Matugas was later on chosen as the chairperson of the federated Landcare groups. The organization of Landcare was preluded with the slide showing on conservation farming conducted by ICRAF in response to the request of the barangay officials. There are now 14 members of the Landcare group and 22 adopters. They continue to grow seedlings in their nursery which also include fruit trees. They plan to reach out more farmers in the sitio until the 42 households will adopt soil and water conservation and agroforestry practices. They are getting support from the local government. The Landcare groups now are more interested in planting fruit trees after they have done enough for timber trees. The Landcare group is also working cooperatively in fixing the feeder road that goes to this sitio. Other social functions are also done by the Landcare groups. The Landcare groups does not only provide a mechanism to address issues related to farming but also provide a forum where they can discuss other social issues, and social integration and belongingness of the people in the community. Mahayahay Landcare group has been frequently visited by farmers within and outside Claveria where they can see and do hands-on in NVS establishment, nursery establishment and management, and asexual propagation of fruit trees. The Landcare members are unselfishly sharing their time and talent to these farmers.
Laculac is one of the 8 sitios of Ani-e. Before the Landcare was organized in 1997, spontaneous adoption was observed to few sloping farmers. One of these farmers is Mr. Judito Juban. Mr. Juban migrated from Bukidnon in early 1980's and was also a sloping farmer. When he came to Claveria he bought a hectare of sloping farm at very low price (P6,000). He confessed that he won't come to his farm after a heavy downpour because the rills and gullies were formed, and seed or plants and fertilizer were washed down to the downslope. He saw IRRI's field trial, and tried to apply the system to his farm by his own. He never planted the contour with leguminous trees as what he saw in the experiment but he used natural grasses in which later he changed to Setaria splendida and timber trees particularly Gmelina arborea. When the barangay initiated the formation of Landcare in barangay Ani-e in 1997, Mr. Juban was the obvious person to be requested to further promote the adoption of soil and water conservation. Besides, the neighbor farmers observed the benefit of soil conservation in Mr. Juban's farm more than his words to convince them. The landowners also became a member of the Landcare, and one of them is Mr. Casino. He asked his tenants to adopt soil conservation measures, and he even reached to a point of telling his tenants: "no adoption; no farming in my land". This encouraged his tenant farmers and other farmers to adopt soil conservation measures. Mr. Juban was the resource person to assist them in laying out contour lines or establishing NVS. Mr. Juban became the president of the Laculac Landcare group in which all his 17 members have already adopted soil conservation measures by having NVS or fodder grasses laid out in contour. The member opted to plant bananas, fodder grasses, fruit and timber trees as they enriched their NVS. They worked together to establish their Landcare nurseries where they raised seedlings of fruit and timber trees. They are also getting free seedlings from other Landcare groups. The barangay government is also providing nursery materials for their nursery.
MOSCAT started as a municipal high school. It became a Claveria National High School in June 1963. Later, it was converted into a state college in June 1983. It is located in the upland farming community of Claveria, Misamis Oriental. About 45 kilometers northeast of Cagayan de Oro City. It is accessible from the coast via the old Jasaan route and through Villanueva town. MOSCAT guiding philosophy is the enhancement of the general well-being of rural farming communities of Claveria, and the neighboring municipalities of Misamis Oriental especially the poor, under-privilege and disadvantaged through effective instruction, research and extension. It has a total land area of 97.37 hectares. MOSCAT seeks to provide quality and relevant training and instruction in agriculture, science and technology, promote research, advanced studies and progressive leadership in the advancement of knowledge for the improvement of the quality of human life. In the pursuit of its mission, it shall provide tertiary education on the following objectives:
Courses Offered:
Manpower Capabilities MOSCAT has 46 faculty and 41 administrative staff. Nine of the academic staff have advanced studies or training abroad, 3 are pursuing their doctoral studies locally, while, while 6 are completing their masteral programs.
The outreach/extension focus is the piloting of commodities identified in the Provincial Agriculture Development Plan of Misamis Oriental. At present, it has two pilot project areas: Sericulture in Claveria and Cutflower Production in Gingoog City with 22 identified farmer-cooperators. MOSCAT collaborates with other members agencies in undertaking research and development in agriculture, forestry, and in natural resources management in Northern Mindanao. It reaches various sectors of society through its Farmers' Agribusiness Development Center (FADC). The center accepts as a venue for workshops, seminars and training program on upland conservation, agroecosystems management and other agro-industrial income generating technologies in cooperation with local government units, NGO's, Pos, and with the Department of Agriculture. MOSCAT is also actively involved in implementing a.) Integrated Development Approach for Nutrition Improvement (IDANI) of the rural poor, b.) Agroforestry Support Program for Empowering Communities Toward Self-reliance (ASPECTS) for sustainable developments as collaborating institution of Central Mindanao University (CMU) and the University of the Philippines at Los Banos Agroforestry Program (UAP), respectively.
MOSCAT has established linkages with local, national and international institutions and agencies. It is the host of the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), and the recipient of the European Union funded AGRED project. It has established contact with Iowa State University College of Forestry.
Lanise is one of the 17 barangays that Landcare is adopted. This barangay is situated in high elevation of 900-1200 masl where vegetable growing is favorable. There are 417 farm families, and these are divided into 9 zones or sitios. Farmers are rotating vegetables and maize. They put premium inputs to the vegetable and the maize is benefiting from residual fertilizer. Tomato is the main vegetable crop. Cabbage, sweet pepper, beans, carrots and radish are also cultivated. Coffee, cacao and rubber are also cultivated. Vegetable growers traditionally believed that the soil should be well drained to avoid rotting, disease infestation and early senescence. This is the obvious reason why vegetable farmers orient the rows up and down the slope. This practice cause severe soil erosion and loss of fertilizer inputs. The Landcare was adopted in April 2, 1997. This aims at addressing severe soil erosion in vegetable production and planting of fruit and timber trees to improve and diversify farm income. The local government (barangay) facilitated the formation of Landcare group to all of the 9 sitios. Besides the political will, it also provides funds for training and establishment of communal nursery at the each sitio. The Landcare movement faced a serious challenge in Lanise. This is due to the traditional concept about vegetable growing, the difficulty in putting trellis to the vegetable in contour curvature, and hauling of vegetable harvests particularly if the contour is oriented perpendicular to the road (tomato production). Inspite of these drawbacks, there are now 40 vegetable farmers who adopted NVS laid out along the contour. They observed that adoption of NVS has no effect on disease infestation, rotting and on senescence. Few of them modified their trellising method to address contour curvature. These farmers are sharing to other vegetable farmers about their experiences, and encourage other non-adopters to also adopt conservation farming based on NVS. There are now communal nurseries established by the Landcare group with financial assistance from the local fund. These seedlings are planted on the NVS and along farm boundaries. Fruit trees are Durian, Rambutan and Mangoes. Timber trees are Bagras, Mahogany, Cassia mangium, and Gmelina arborea.
This is one of the tourist attractions in Claveria. The canyon is a deep escarpment of more than 500 meters deep to the Cabulig river, and it is facing the toward the terrain of extended grasslands to the national park of Mt. Balatucan. Cabulig river cuts across the municipality and empties its water to the next town of Jasaan. The river segregates the mainland and the tabuk barangays (villages). The canyon overviews the other 8 villages of Claveria to the north and northeast. |