Roving for Knowledge—In the Field

The Landcare Approach

In northern Mindanao, conservation farming on sloping lands focuses on soil and water conservation practices that form the foundation for productive agroforestry systems. Examples of these practices include the use of natural vegetative strips (NVS), contour hedgerows, terraces, and green manure and cover crops. Integration of economic grasses, forages, food crops and perennials (trees and shrubs) provide short- and long-term benefits for farmers. Evolution of a range of technical and institutional innovations by farmers, researchers, extension workers and local government has led to successful, inexpensive and rapid adoption of conservation farming by farmers in many areas.

ICRAF has been instrumental in helping to develop a farmer-led approach to technology development and dissemination, which has resulted in an unexpected boost in farmer adoption of soil conservation technologies and agroforestry practices in Claveria. The key institutional innovation for effective conservation farming technology dissemination is the Landcare approach: a process that is led by farmers and community groups, with political and financial support by local government and technical backstopping from ICRAF.

In 1996, ICRAF began to support Landcare dissemination activities in Claveria as a direct response to farmers' request. The technical and institutional innovations jointly developed led to the formation of the Claveria Landcare Association (CLCA), which was formally registered as a people's organization (PO) in September 1997. CLCA has proven to be an effective, largely voluntary mechanism to promote and support conservation farming based on the establishment of NVS. By the end of 1998, 59 Landcare groups were operational within 19 barangays (villages) in Claveria. Most of these Landcare groups are based in the purok or sitio (sub-village), where farmers can interact with each other more frequently. A sitio has 30 to 60 farming families.

These Landcare groups have successfully extended conservation farming based on NVS to about 2,000 farmers, and established 205 communal and individual nurseries that produce hundreds of thousands of fruit and timber tree seedlings for planting on the NVS or along farm boundaries. CLCA also helped to get funding for 75 draft animals for dispersal to Landcare members who needed carabaos (water buffaloes).

The greatest success of Landcare is in changing the mindset of farmers, policymakers, local government units, and landowners about how to use the land and protect the environment. It is not simply about the total length of NVS laid out, the number of nurseries established, the number of seedlings planted, or the number of Landcare members. The Landcare movement is renovating the minds, attitudes, and practices of the farmers, policymakers, and local government officials on using the land to meet their current needs while conserving resources for future generations.

There are now farmers who voluntarily share their time and efforts. There are also policymakers who urge farmers to adopt conservation farming practices, and support these efforts by allocating local government funds and enacting local ordinances. These are the important success indicators of the Landcare approach that enable local people to conceive, initiate and implement plans and programs that will lead to the adoption of profitable and resource-conserving technologies.

Decentralization and devolution of natural resource management to the grassroots level enables local governments to allocate resources and provide policy support to complement farmer- and community-led efforts to conserve resources for sustained production and use. The Landcare approach provides:

• a vehicle for interested farmer to learn, adopt and share knowledge about new technologies that can earn more money and conserve natural resources;

• a forum for the community to respond to issues that they see as important;

• a mechanism for local governments to support; and

• a network for ensuring that ideas and initiatives are shared and disseminated.

Landcare is emerging as a dynamic approach that can empower local governments and communities to effectively and inexpensively disseminate conservation farming and agroforestry practices. The experiences and lessons learned in Claveria provide a strong basis to scale-up to the regional and national levels, and to scale-out to other municipalities.