Crop Diversification in the Asia-Pacific region - United Nations in ...

CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN THE PHILIPPINESRene Rafael C. Espino and Cenon S. Atienza *1. INTRODUCTIONThe Philippine economy is largely dependent on agriculture. Of the approximately73 million population in 1998, the agriculture sector employs more than 11 million peopleand about 26 percent of these are women. There are about 29 million people dependent onagriculture.In 1998, the total area planted to crops was 11.6 million hectares. Of these, 5.5million hectares are devoted to rice and corn, 4.8 million hectares for major crops and 1.3million hectares for other crops. Major crop products exported include coconut, sugar,pineapple, banana, coffee and mango. On the other hand, rice and corn continue to beimported to meet the demand of the growing population.The Department of Agriculture (DA) is the government agency responsible for allagricultural activities in the country. The DA has a number of staff bureaus and attachedagencies that conduct activities on crop production, regulation and R&D. The attachedagencies look at a specific crop, e.g., the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice) forrice, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) for sugar cane, the Philippine CoconutAuthority (PCA) for coconut, the Fibre Development Authority (FIDA) for abaca and otherfibre crops, the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) for tobacco, and the CottonDevelopment Authority (CODA) for cotton. On the other hand, the staff bureaus like theBureau of Plant Industry (BPI), the Bureau of Post-Harvest Research and Extension (BPRE),the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), the Bureau of Agricultural andFishery Product Standards (BAFPS), and the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) havemulti-crop responsibilities.A crop diversification scheme is largely dependent on climatic conditions. There arefour climate types in the Philippines, namely, Type I with two pronounced seasons, dry fromNovember to April and wet during the rest of the year; Type II with no dry season and withvery pronounced maximum rainfall from November to January; Type III where seasons arenot very pronounced and relatively dry from November to January; and Type IV whererainfall is more or less evenly distributed throughout the year.The DA has adopted crop diversification as a strategy to promote and hastenagricultural development. As such, this paper presents crop diversification in twoperspectives. One aspect is planting a cash crop after the main crop and the other is plantingintercrops (permanent or cash crops) in-between the main crop, usually a permanent crop.This strategy helps attain the goal of the Department in increasing productivity and farmincome notwithstanding the benefit of environmental conservation.* Programme Director and Consultant, High Value Commercial Crop Programme, Department of Horticulture,College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines.95