Field Guide of Discovery-based Exercises for - Aseanipm ...

Section 3 • Living Soil, Integrated Soil Nutrient and Crop Managements
Exercise No. 3.15 83
CONTOUR PLANTING AS A SOIL CONSERVATION
STRATEGY FOR HIGHLAND ORGANIC VEGETABLE
PRODUCTION
BaCKGroUND aND raTIoNalE
When land is cultivated up and down a slope, furrows act as
fabricated channels or rills. Each time it rains, water runs
down furrows and enlarges them, becoming gullies, if not
checked. The solution is to plow across slope following
contour lines rather than up and down, a method called
contour farming or contour planting. Contours are areas
around a field having same elevation.
In contour planting, a row of plants is planted on a contour and the next rows of plants on the next
contour. Each furrow in contour serves as a small dam to check flows of water; eventually water
seeps into the ground. If one to four contours of cultivated crops are followed by either a row (also
called strip) of a perennial crop that will not shade vegetable crops, such practice is called contour
strip farming. If hedges are used along contour lines, such hedges are more aptly called contour
hedgerows and such cropping system is known as alley cropping system or sloping agricultural
land technology (SALT) 84 . The strips slow and spread water movement, thus reducing likelihood
of serious erosion in cultivated areas. The SALT is gaining wide acceptance among small vegetable
farmers in sloping areas. The rows or strips are closer in steeper slopes and wider in moderate
slopes.
When growing organic vegetable crops, the planting one permanent crop out of four would help
greatly in conserving soil. In planting several kinds of organic vegetable crops, plant tall crops
at lower strips and shorter ones at higher strips. Farmers in the Cordilleras are continuously
adapting more innovative contour farming practices, which when shared with others in FFSs will
further improve existing best practices. This exercise was so designed to enhance such sharing of
experiences.
83 Adapted from Callo, Jr., D.P., L.B. Teofilo, and H.A. Tauli (eds). 2002. Field Guide of Discovery-based Exercises for Vegetable IPM, Volume II. SEAMEO
Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines. pp97-100.
84 Bautista, O.K. (ed). 1994. Introduction to Tropical Horticulture. 2 nd Edition, SEAMEO Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture
and University of the Philippines Los Baños, College, Laguna, Philippines. pp301-304.
111
when is this exercise most
appropriate?
ɶ In FFS, TOT, and VST
sessions, before land
preparation and layingout
in learning field; and
ɶ When farmers want to
learn from other farmers
some innovative contour
farming practices for
organic vegetable
production in sloping
areas.