Philippines

PHILIPPINES
and small ruminants are also raised but they require the growing of appropriate pasture grass and legumes.
Upland areas constitute 60% of the Philippines’ land area and are predominantly sloping and hilly. Since upland areas
are also home to resource-poor farmers and their families, the sloping agricultural land technology (SALT) enables them
to strip-crop annual crops and grow perennial crops for domestic consumption and some income, without resulting to
soil erosion and decreased soil productivity.
In sugarcane areas, legumes such as mungbean and cowpea intercropped during the first three months provide an
opportunity for harvesting one crop in addition to sugarcane. Farmers in some areas also raise livestock. However,
planters would resort to monoculture whenever the price of sugar goes up.
From the 1970s onward, the progress towards the development of sustainable farming systems occurred rapidly, not
only to enhance food production, but also to increase income; maximize the use of all available resources such as land,
capital, labor and irrigation facilities; develop the countryside; and to minimize environmental degradation. Several
types of farming systems are practiced, as follows:
Agroforest/homestead gardens
This is a system where forest trees and agricultural crops are grown together, along with the raising of livestock in
homelots. This is often a multistorey agroforestry system where the canopies of the component species occupy different
strata on the vertical view. This started as an unplanned traditional system of planting the component crops and it
evolved into a systematic land management practice.
The traditional practice in Cordillera region in northern Philippines involves a multi-layered agroforestry garden with
the upper layer dominated by trees such as pine trees, alnus, mango, rimas, acacia, santol, and caimito. Smaller tree crops
like coffee, jackfruit, guava, citrus, banana and papaya serve as the middle layer, while the ground layer is planted with
a variety of vegetables, spices and medicinal plants. Livestock components include pigs, chicken, dogs, turkey, geese,
ducks, etc. More recently developed systems, which are more systematic, are the combinations of Benguet pine – coffee,
Akleng parang – several agricultural crops, alnus-coffee, and alnus-chayote, among many others.
Multi-storey farming system
This farming system involves more than two layers of crops in a given area. Most typical of this is the coconut based
farming system in Cavite and other areas in Southern Tagalog. In this system, coconut serves as the first storey crop,
followed by the second storey crops like lanzones or coffee or cacao or other medium-sized trees or their combinations
depending on the preference of the farmers. The third layer of crops may be banana or papaya. The lower layer of crops
may be the annual crops like taro, ginger, yam, sweet potato, and vines like chayote, among others. Pineapple is also a
common crop planted at the lower layer of the cropping system. It is very evident from these examples of crops that
there is great diversity of crop species in this kind of farming system.
Integrated farming system
This is a farming system whereby the outputs or by-products of one component are used as inputs to the production
of another components. Thus, there is an integration or close relationships among the components of the system and a
greater utilization of available resources in the farm is achieved.
Diversified conservation farming in sloping lands
This is an upland farming technology combining soil and water conservation through contour farming /cropping,
soil fertility improvement, crop diversity and productivity. This system has evolved through time from a simple alley
cropping with food and cash crops along with leguminous hedgerows (SALT 1) into a system combining food crops,
fruits, and marketable forest trees (SALT 3). Under the SALT 3, more diverse crop species are observed together with a
variety of short-, medium-, and long-term tree species. This diversity of plant species provides a long-term stability to
the production system.
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Multicropped home gardens
This is a model for a home garden that could supply sufficient vegetables for the family’s needs. An example of this
is the FAITH (Food Always in the Home ) gardens. In a 100 m 2 lot, three sections should be made and each section
would be planted with different crops of varying maturities. One section should be planted with vegetables that are
maturing in two to four months, like soybean, mustard, pechay, carrots, cowpeas, bush sitao, sweet corn and tomatoes.
The other section can be planted with okra, cucumber, eggplant, winged bean, and ginger, which are maturing in six to
nine months. The last section can be planted with crops that are maturing in 11 to 12 months such as pigeon peas, taro,
and swamp cabbage.