multipurpose tree species research for small farms: strategies ... - part

Small Farm Multipurpose Tree Species Research in the Philippines:
As in many parts of the tropics, farniin& in
upland or mountainous areas in the Philippines
presents many challenges to policy makers,
development planners and scientists. In response
to this, the government has embarked on a mas;ive
social forestry program emphasizing agroforestry
as the key technical compone~nt.
A major obstacle to the adoption of agroforestry
is a lack of site-specific, sustainable production
systems. In alley cropping, the mast popular
agroforestry system, only one or two woody
perennial species are being used for hedgcrows.
his severely limits the options available to farmers
as well as exposin the farm to possible ecological
disasters such as t ie recent psyllid infcsta:, of
Leucacna.
The primary purpose of this paper is to outline
a research methodology to promote the adoption
of multipurpose tree species (MPTS) and
agroforestry systems by upland farmers, consistent
with the ecological and socioeconomic realities in
the Philippines. In addition, issues and institutions
involved in MPTS research are discussed. Most of
the discu: ion centers around agroforestry because
of the widjly held belief that the primary
application of MPTS today is in agroforestry.
Any concrete research strategy must deal with
the realities of the Philipines and not with
idealized conceptions. Two key constraints
affecting agroforestry and MPTS research are t'he
urgercy of achieving rapid results with limited
available resources.
The Issue is Survival
Of a total land area of 30 million hectares,
approximately 12 million hectares of the
Philippines is considered forest land. Of these,
more than 4 million ha are estimated to be under
some form of cultivation (Celestino and Elliot
1986). About 18 million Filipinos of a total
population of 60 million live in the uplands (areas
with slopes greater than 18%) of which half are
dependent on agriculture. By the turn of the
century, the upland population is expected to
Methods, Issues and Institutions
Rodel D. Lasco and Wilfredo M. Carandang
Uniwrsity of the Philippines at Ls Banos
College, Laguna, Philippines
133
double if present trends continue (Cruz and
Zosa-Feranil 1987). This has caused a host of
adverse on-site and off-site impacts including
the loss of soil resources, declining productivity,
flooding, sedimentation of water systems,
poverty, and political unresi.
To address these problems, the government
created a social forestry program. By the end of
1987, it encompassed more than 500,000ha with
200,000 families as beneficiaries (FMB 1987).
The program involves giving farmers the right to
stay on the land for 25 years, renewable for an
additional 25 years. In return, the farmers are
required to practice some form of agroforestry
and other soil conserving measures. By law, the
beneficiaries are required to plant only 5 trees
per hectare. Social forestry officers are
supposed to Provide technical assistance to the
farmers. This is where another set of problems
begins.
Many social forestry technicians barely know
what agroforestry really is. At best it is equated
with alley cropping, known in the Philippines as
SALT (Sloping Land Agricultural Technology).
This was illustrated at one of the training
sessions conducted by the author for social
forestry officers. Dui-ng the open forum one of
the participants admitted to stopping a farmer
from practicing something which he now
learized was a form of agroforestry! On the
bright side, the lack of training is currently being
addressed by a natio,. de training program for
social forestry technicia.
The second problem is just as serious. There
are actually very few site-specific, sustainable
agroforestry systems available to the farmers.
As a result, inost government projects rely on
"a!-ycropping, which in itself is a good
tec'irology, but it has its limitations. Its ability
to conserve water remains doubtful. On the
basis of studies conducted in the Philippines
(Cuevas and Samson 1982; Tepatiya 1984; Lasco
1987) it seems that its ability to reduce runoff is
not as effective as its ability to conserve soil.
This implies tha! large-scale adoption of alley
cropping in watershed areas may not necessarily