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Philippine Quarterly of Culture & Society 13 (1985): 282-296

SOME SOCIOECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF FOREST USE BY LOWLAND FARMERS IN LEYTE, PHILIPPINES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND FOREST MANAGEMENT

Stephen F. Siebert and Jill M. Belsky

SUMMARY

Public forests in central Leyte, Philippines provide an important source of annual food crops, perennial cash crops, and rattan and timber to lowland farmers. Household economic dependence upon and uses made of forest resources are associated with relative access to lowland-based activities, especially production of irrigated rice. Households unable to

procure sufficient food staples through on or off-farm labor in the lowlands utilize adjacent public forests to cultivate subsistence food crops and to collect forest products. Households able to procure a larger portion of their food staples from lowland-based enterprises depend less upon forests and utilize them primarily for supplementary food production and perennial cash cropping. Current forest farming and forest product collecting activities, especially in annual food-focussed farms, result in erosion, soil

degradation and gradual destruction of the indigenous flora. The

importance of understanding and incorporating variable household economic dependence on and uses made of forest resources is discussed in relation to the introduction of appropriate strata-specific soil conservation, agroforestry and forest management measures.

INTRODUCTION

The economic importance of forests for rural households in the Philip? pines is well documented among indigenous, cultural minority groups who live in upland forested areas (e.g., Conelly 1985, Schlegel 1979). However, comparable information is lacking for lowland, "migrant" or peasant groups who are partially integrated into a market economy and who live near public forest lands. One reason for the lack of research on this latter

group may be a widespread belief that only non-commercial producers rely on forests for their livelihood. A second reason may be a failure on the part of researchers to appreciate the multiple livelihood strategies of impoverished peoples and hence that small, lowland farmers may also be

F. Siebert and Stephen Jill M. are Ph.D. students in Belsky the currently Natural Department of Resources and Rural Cornell Sociology, respectively, University, Ithaca, N.Y., U.S.A.

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FOREST USE BY LOWLAND FARMERS IN LEYTE 283

forest users. Third, increasingly popular "quick and dirty" survey methodologies are not sensitive to the fact that some rural villagers may not wish to discuss their forest activities with outsiders because these forests are

public property and illegal forest practices are punishable by fine or imprisonment (Makil 1984). Finally, the distance of survey respondents' residences from forests further obscures the notion that these resources

represent an important part of the local economy. Consequently, upland development programs often overlook the socioeconomic role and

importance of forest resources to many lowland households and miss valuable forest management and rural development opportunities.

A widespread and destructive use of public forest land in the

Philippines, and throughout Southeast Asia, is conversion to hillside farms

(Myers 1980; Spears 1979). The negative effects associated with unsustainable hillside farming are felt "upstream" in the form of low incomes and reduced agricultural productivity for farmers, and "downstream" in the form of increased flooding and sedimentation of

dams, irrigation facilities and estuaries. Forest farming by lowland, "migrant" cultivators tends to be

environmentally destructive and unsustainable (Conklin 1957, Sajise 1982). The lack of a cultural tradition of shifting cultivation has been suggested as an explanation for their "disharmonious" land use practices (Olofson 1981). Others emphasize the marginalization, proletarization and in?

corporation of peasants into the world market, and that given these

conditions, agricultural intensification, short planning horizons, risk aversion attitudes and resistance to soil conservation measures reflect

strategies of individual peasant household use of marginal hilly lands

(Blakie 1985). In order to improve the sustainability and productivity of forest

farming, development planners need to base recommendations for change on a thorough understanding of current agricultural, environmental and socioeconomic practices and conditions. This requires detailed, inter?

disciplinary studies of existing farming systems, including all on and off-farm livelihood activities and institutions in the lowlands, as well as in the uplands.

This article presents some socioeconomic aspects and environmental

implications associated with forest conversion and agricultural intensifica? tion among migrant cultivators in a Leyte, Philippines village. In

particular, it reviews the relationships between limited lowland economic

opportunities, hillside farm cropping strategies and environmental

degradation. The research was conducted in the village of Karila,1 near

Baybay, Leyte during 1983-84, using surveys, household interviews and record keeping, participant observation and intensive agronomic and

1A fictitious name for the case study village has been used.


284 PHILIPPINE QUARTERLY OF CULTURE & SOCIETY

floristic sampling over a 14-month period. The findings of this case study are discussed in relation to agricultural development and forest manage? ment.

USE OF PUBLIC FOREST RESOURCES BY LOWLAND FARMERS

In the case study village of Karila, 87% of households cultivate at least one farm parcel located on public forest land. Households cultivate an

average of 1.8 noncontiguous parcels,which are 1-4 km from their homes, and farm sizes average approximately one-half hectare. Forest farming management practices and cropping patterns vary. Long fallow (15 yr) shifting cultivation, common several decades ago, is now extremely unusual. Most current hillside farming involves short fallow (1-5 yr) shifting cultivation and permanent farming.2

There are two principal types of hillside cropping systems: those with an annual, food-crop focus and those with a perennial, cash-crop focus. Corn, sweet potato and are upland rice the most commonly grown crops in the food-focussed farms in Karila, while abaca (Musa textilis) intercropped with tannia (Xanthosoma predominates in perennial farms. sagittifolium)*

Rattan and timber collecting in public forests are other important livelihood activities for lowland households in Southeast Asia (Menon 1980; Weles 1978). In Karila, 50% of village households earn supplemental income from the sale of rattan or timber, while rattan gathering is the

major income source for 20% of the households. Both rattan and small scale logging, as well as hillside farming, occur exclusively on public forest land designated "inalienable and nondisposable" (BFD, Tacloban Office, pers. comm.) and are thus illegal.

Eight rattan species and eight timber species are harvested for commercial purposes in the forests adjacent to Karila (Table 1). Rattan and timber are also gathered for home construction, firewood, weaving and

making tool handles and fishing traps. During 1983, the amount of rattan sold from the village of Karila totalled approximately 48,000 poles (each 4m in length and 2-3cm in diameter). The total cash value of this

unprocessed rattan (amount paid to collectors) was approximately Peso 72,000 (US $6,400 at 1983 exchange rates). Rattan gatherers earned an average of Peso 20-30 per earn day in 1983. Village timber haulers between Peso 0.30-0.45 per bd ft hauled (depending on the distance) and their earnings averaged Peso 10 per day (Siebert and Belsky 1985).

Forest resources also provide an emergency source of income in times of

2The literature frequently refers to all hillside as farming "kaingin" and

equates kaingin with shifting cultivation. As Olofson (1981) points out, the

original Tagalog meaning of kaingin includes both shifting and continuous cultiva? tion. The term hillside is farming used here to include both kinds of farms and is sometimes used interchangeably with upland farm.



TABLE 1: COMMERCIALLY HARVESTED RATTAN AND TIMBER SPECIES

SCIENTIFIC NAME LOCAL NAME

Rattans:

Calamus ornatus Bl. ex Schult. kalapi Becc. var. philippinensis

C. merrilli Becc. palasan C. microcarpus Becc. potian/obanon

C. sp. magbagaki C. sp. tomalim C. sp. tagsaon

Daemonorops ochrolepis Becc. nukot/pagiti D. hanamham pedicellaris Becc.

Timber:

Pterocarpus indicus Willd. naga/narra Shorea contorta Vid. lauan S. negrosensis Foxw. lauan

S. polita Vid. lauan S. polysperma (Blco.) Merr. lauan S. squamata (Turcz.) Dyer ex Vid. lauan Parashorea malaanonan (Blco.) Merr. lauan

Dipterocarpus grandiflorus Blco. apitong Hopea philippinensis Dyer gisok Artocarpus blancoi (Elm.) Merr. antipolo

TABLE 2: COMMONLY EATEN WILD FOREST PLANTS*

SCIENTIFIC NAME LOCAL NAME PART OF PLANT EATEN

Colocasia esculenta Schott. gabi leaves, root tubers

Gnetum gnemon L. young leaves Andredera scandens (L.) Moq. alibato leaves, root tubers

Artocarpus blancoi L. antipolo fruits

Athyrium esculenta Copeland pako young fronds Calamus spp. ubud sa uway 'cabbage' buds

Garyota cumingii Lodd. pugahan young leaves Averhoa carambola L. balimbing fruits Dendrocalamus curranii Gamble patong young shoots Dioscorea hispida Dennst. koyot root tubers Averhoa bilimbi L. iba fruits Corchorus olitoriusL. saluyut young shoots Cordia dichotoma Forst, f. anonang leaves

Dioscorea sp. ube root tubers

Syzygium aquem (Burm. f.) Alst, tambis fruits

* Listed in order of descending eating frequency 1983. during



extreme economic hardship. During the early part of 1983, for example, 13% more households in Karila collected rattan to supplement income lost

due to prolonged drought than before that period. Importantly, these new

gatherers elected to collect rattan because their hillside farm crops failed

(Belsky and Siebert 1983). Forest products are also periodically gathered when cash is needed for emergency medical, funeral, educational or

wedding expenses. Edible plants and fruits are also gathered from the forest. During

1983, wild were plants eaten by all households and an average of one wild

pig celebensis) or was (Sus deer (Cervus philippinus) trapped in the nearby forests each month (Table 2). Hunting provides meat for households that cannot afford to purchase it in the market.

DIFFERENTIAL HOUSEHOLD DEPENDENCE UPON PUBLIC FOREST RESOURCES

While all village residents in Karila utilize forest resources to some

extent, household economic dependence upon and uses made of these resources are influenced by household access to alternate livelihood

sources, especially lowland rice farming, copra production and seasonal

wage labor. The relative ability of households to grow their own rice, the

staple food in Karila, is a useful proxy for estimating socioeconomic status

of households in the village (Belsky 1984). were Twenty-two percent of households unable to produce any of the

rice they consumed (low rice self-sufficiency [RSS] category) and grew predominantly annual food crops for human consumption in their hillside farms. The principal crops cultivated by low RSS households include sweet

potato (grown by 73%), corn (64%), cassava (64%) and, to a lesser degree, assorted vegetables (Table 3). Low RSS households cultivate few perennial cash crops because their main purpose for forest farming is to produce

staple foods and to a lesser extent, to grow food for their pigs. When asked to source identify the most important of food or cash income, half of the

low RSS households stated hillside farming. Importantly, gathering rattan

is their means primary of earning income.

In contrast, 43% of households grew at least half of the rice they eat (middle RSS), while 35% produced more than half of their annual rice needs (high RSS); over two-thirds of these households grew perennial and cash crops of abaca and coconut in their hillside farms. Less than half of

the middle and high RSS farmers produced corn or sweet potato and even fewer cultivated cassava (Table 3). Hillside farms are cultivated by these farmers to produce supplemental food for use in stretching rice supplies between harvests, and as a source of cash for purchasing household

commodities (e.g. salt, oil, kerosene) and petrochemical inputs required in

lowland rice production. In their tree-focussed abaca farms, they also grow tannia for use as livestock feed and emergency food. High RSS households

rank their hillside farms second in importance to lowland rice paddies



TABLE 3: CROPS FOUND IN HILLSIDE FARMS BY HOUSEHOLD RICE SELF-SUFFICIENCY

CROP RICE SELF-SUFFICIENCY CATEGORY (BY PERCENT)1 LOW MIDDLE HIGH = TOTAL (n 55)

coconut 64 84 85 82

abaca 27 83 75 69

tannia 18 83 75 69

banana 36 42 65 49

sweet potato corn

73

64

54

46

25

25

47

47

cassava 64 29 25 35

vegetables2 rice upland

fruit trees

18

9

2

17

17

8

15

5

15

16

11

9

pineapple taro

9

9

8

0

0

5

6

4

mongo bean

millet 9

0

4

13

0

0

4

4

peanuts tobacco

0

0

0

2

5

2

2

2

0 4 0 2

are Percentages based on the number of households out of all hillside households who farming report the presence of a on particular crop one or more of their hillside farm It is not a measure of parcels. crop within frequency parcels. Includes green beans, squash, onions, sicwa, peppers and eggplant. Includes papaya, jackfruit, avocado, malunggai, lanzones and guava.

TABLE 4: DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF HOUSEHOLDS BY RICE SELF-SUFFICIENCY (IN %)

LIFE CYCLE ^v^Uc^?cP STAGE

LOW MIDDLE HIGH TOTAL = (n 55)

young 50 48 18 39 middle 14 41 50 35

old_36_U_32_26_ * Life cycle stage was determined by averaging the ages of the two (male and female) household heads (or using the age of one head in the case of a single-headed household) and grouping them in the following categories: young (21-38 yrs), middle (39-55 yrs) and old (56-72 yrs).



which provide staple food. Rice self-sufficiency is also related to household demographic status

(Table 4). Half of the households in the low RSS category are at the youngest stage of the domestic life cycle. In contrast, more than two-thirds of high RSS households are in the middle and old stages. One explanation for this pattern is that the limited availability of irrigated rice land and opportunities to become a tenant, currently make it difficult for young households to become ricefarmers. Lowland ricefields are expensive and

infrequently for sale. Older residents were able to or purchase inherit ricelands before land shortages became acute and were able to become tenants more easily. The land reform laws of 1972 have made landowners fearful that tenants may try to seize their land and hence are they reluctant to take on new tenants.

Villagers in Karila have always taken advantage of nearby public forests to grow supplementary food and cash crops. However, during the first half of this century, relatively low population densities and wider availability of lowland paddies enabled households to cultivate forested hillsides in a less intensive and more productive manner than today. In recent decades, the

supplementary role of hillside farms has evolved into a primary means of subsistence for many, especially young, impoverished households who have

virtually no access to lowland farms (even as tenant cultivators) and few off-farm income generating opportunities. Moreover, pressure on public forest resources is likely to increase in the future due to population growth (47% of the village population is under 15 yrs of age) and worsening economic conditions in the country as a whole. It is important to note that

only a narrow economic margin distinguishes households in Karila from one another, yet these differences are enough to account for variations in household livelihood strategies and in dependence upon and use made of forest resources.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS OF FOREST CONVERSION AND USE

The environmental implications associated with tropical forest con?

version and agricultural intensification are extremely varied. Impacts tend to be site-specific, depending upon such factors as type and extent of

conversion, climatic regime, edaphic characteristics (e.g., initial soil

organic matter content and degree of aggregate stability), physiographic features (e.g., slope and slope length) and management practices. Accurate estimates of the environmental effects of forest conversion require site

specific, empirical field studies. Hamilton and King (1983) note that one cannot assume, as has often been the case, that forest conversion

automatically causes increased flooding, erosion, springflow irregularity and other undesirable conditions. However, when forest conversion is followed by intensive cultivation of annual crops in the absence of soil conservation measures, severe environmental degradation will likely ensue



(Greenland, 1981). The watershed above the village of Karila drains approximately 12 sq

km of largely primary and secondary forest on steep terrain between sea

level and 1050m elevation. Hillside farms and small areas where forests have been converted to grass associations (principally, Imperata cylindrica and Saccharum spontaneum) are interspersed throughout the watershed. The climate is everwet; rainfall is normally distributed evenly throughout the year, and precipitation averages about 2660 mm per year. Soils in the Karila region are Orthic Acrisols (Ultisols) (FAO, 1979), overlying consolidated clastic sediments and are moderately acidic (ph 5.8-6.4). Slopes in the watershed are extremely steep (most are between 30%-80%) and the land is cultivated exclusively by lowland Filipinos whose agricultural traditions and socioeconomic foci are lowland oriented.

The principal environmental effects associated with conversion of forests to farms, intensification of farming activities and forest product gathering in the Bayhang River watershed include: erosion, alteration of soil nutrient and physical conditions, invasion of exotic weed species and the depletion of rattan and timber supplies. The factors of greatest importance in site degradation include: 1) frequent burning, 2) continuous cultivation of nutrient demanding crops, 3) low organic matter incorpora? tion into the soil, 4) clean weeding throughout the cropping cycle and 5) unregulated forest product collecting.

Low (and to a certain extent middle) RSS farmers cultivate their hillside farms more intensively and with more deleterious environmental effects than high RSS Farmers. Low RSS farmers cultivate annual crops on a short fallow or continuous basis, while high RSS farmers cultivate more

perennial crops, which maintain complete ground cover, often with an

overstory of cultivated and wild tree crops (particularly, Pterocarpus indicus, Artocarpus blancoi and Artocarpus heterophylld). Even where

high RSS households cultivate annual crops, they do so in a less intensive manner than low stratum households; for example, low RSS farmers

usually plant three crops of corn each year while high stratum farmers

usually plant only one or two crops and practice plot rotation within their farms.

Soil erosion from hillside farms presents a serious environmental

problem in the Karila watershed and in many other tropical regions (El-Swaify et al. 1982; Hudson 1981). It is a problem not only because it constrains food on production hillside farms, but because it can endanger irrigated rice production in the lowlands. Soil loss, estimated by measuring the distance from fixed cross-slope transects down to the soil at monthly intervals, averaged 3.4 cm in the first six months following initial clearing and cultivation (95% C.I. for the mean = = 2.7-4.0 cm; n 91). This

represents approximately 485 tons of soil loss per hectare in just six months

(assuming 1 acre inch of soil with 2?7o organic matter content weighs 150 tons) (Pimentel et al. 1976). Evidence of erosion is widespread and includes: gully formation, removal of soil to underlying rock, sediment



laden streams and farmer concern about soil loss. High rainfall erosivity and soil erodibility factors (i.e., frequent intense rainfall, readily eroded soils and local cultural practices that include steep slope cultivation and clean weeding) account for the high erosion rates. Comparable erosion losses have been reported elsewhere in the tropics (Hatch 1981; Sheng &

Michaelsen 1973). Soil fertility exhaustion in hillside farms is also cited by farmers as a

serious constraint to food production. Soil nutrient and physical analysis from the rooting zone (0-10 cm depth) of three representative hillside farms subjected to different intensities of cultivation are presented in Table 5. The data suggest that available Phosphorus, base nutrients (i.e., Calcium and Magnesium), organic matter content and pH decline when soils are

subjected to intensive annual cultivation. The virtual absence of available

Phosphorus and soil organic matter, relatively low yields and yellowish appearance of corn plants in continuously cultivated sites support farmers' observations that soil fertility limits food same production. The pattern of

rapid soil nutrient decline and exhaustion has been documented in a wide

variety of tropical soils and climatic regimes (Arnason et al. 1982; Krebs

1975; Nye and Greenland 1960). The floristic and successional implications associated with agricultural

intensification in Karila, specifically the conversion of forest fallow swiddens to grass fallow or permanent farms is summarized in Table 6. In

short, agricultural intensification results in the establishment of a

depauperate flora dominated by exotic, pantropically distributed weeds. These weed species can be characterized as extremely competitive, difficult to control or eradicate and of little economic value (Holm et al. 1979).

Conversion of forests to fire climax, disturbance-associated grass communities are widespread in Southeast Asia (Myers 1980). Where

Imperata and other exotic weeds become established, farming becomes

TABLE 5: EFFECT OF CULTIVATION ON SOIL PHYSICAL AND NUTRIENT CHARACTERISTICS.*

ORG. MAT. (o/o)

Ca

(meq/100g) Mg AVAIL P

(ppm) pH

RSS CATEGORY

Forest Fallow (15 yr)

afterburning (3/83) 6.9 18.2 25.1 48.7 6.8 high middle after 2 corn crops (9/83) 3.8 15.3 19.9 0.2 6.3

Grass Fallow (2 yr)

afterburning (3/83) 6.4 9.6 15.4 1.9 6.5 low middle after 2 corn crops (9/83) 4.2 7.2 11.5 0.1 6.0

Permanent Farm (5 yr) continuous corn (3/83) 3.2 5.2 9.9 O 5:4 low

*Data mean represent of 5 soil samples, each a composite of 5 from the 0-10 cm in subsamples each of three depth repre? sentative hillside farms.



TABLE 6: PLANT REESTABLISHMENT IN HILLSIDE FARMS SEVEN WEEKS AFTER CLEARING AND BURNING

FOREST FALLOW GRASS FALLOW

Ground cover (%) 90 23 % % Total number of species 15 60

woody perennials (%) 48 17 % % number of tree species 0 23

Pantropical weedy species (%)2 5 58 % %

mean represent of observations in 10 selected 1 m in randomly sq each site. plots ^Data As Holm et designated by al. 1979.

extremely difficult due to intense competition for scarce soil nutrients and moisture and additional weeding requirements.

Managing and controlling exploitation of forest products is a common

problem in many tropical developing nations. On Leyte, uncontrolled forest product gathering is quickly depleting commercially desirable rattan and timber supplies. For example, before 1982 rattan harvesting concessions for valuable Calamus merrilli were on granted Leyte. However, harvesting was not controlled, and supplies of this rattan were

quickly exhausted; populations of C. merrilli are now small and scattered, and found exclusively in immature growth forms. While there is now a total ban on all rattan harvesting on Leyte, the cutting of less desirable varieties continues. Collectors from the Karila area estimate that there is at best only about a three-year supply of marketable-sized canes of any commercial

variety remaining in the forests. The prospects for sustained timber production on Leyte are poor.

Present timber harvesting rates and selective cutting practices exceed

growth and reestablishment rates, particularly for dipterocarps (Siebert 1984). Furthermore, the conversion of forests to agricultural uses and transition from forest fallow swiddens in which large trees are retained, to

grass fallow and permanent farms with few large trees, reduces both the area of forest and the reproductive potential of forest tree species.

CONCLUSION AND MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS

The conversion of forests to hillside farms and intensification of existing agricultural activities pose major threats to environmental stability and long-term productivity in Leyte and in many other regions of the tropics. The Philippine government has become aware of these problems and in response has instituted the Integrated Social Forestry Program (ISFP). This national program seeks to curb environmental degradation by introducing more productive and sustainable land use systems (particularly agroforestry) that reduce pressure to convert additional forests to farms. To date, the implementation of this program has met with great



difficulties, due in large part to the failure of upland development planners to incorporate farmers' immediate needs and practices into the conceptuali? zation and design of social forestry efforts (Aguilar 1983).

Information on the socioeconomic and environmental conditions in Karila can be used to develop guidelines for the design and introduction of more sustainable hillside farming systems (in that area) and to illustrate the importance of thorough pre-intervention analysis. These guidelines are summarized in Table 7 and discussed below.

At the broadest level, public forest lands provide an important source of cash income and food for lowland farmers in Karila. This suggests that forest management and rural development planners need to have a broad view of who potentially uses forest resources. Forest users increasingly include non-forest dwelling peoples or "migrant" groups who earn part or

most of their livelihood from non-forest or lowland sources, as well as forest dwellers themselves. As access to lowland resources becomes

increasingly concentrated and populations continue to grow, more lowland residents will look to public forests for farmland and forest product collecting. Attention to these groups of forest users is essential to effective forest conservation and management.

Economic on dependence and uses made of forest resources were found to be influenced by access to lowland-based livelihood activities, especially ricefarming. Households a lacking source of staple food-crops cultivate

primarily annual food crops in hillside farms, while households able to procure food staples through lowland activities utilize public forest land for

supplementary food and cash-crop production, and emergency income.

Agricultural and forest management programs are likely to be more successful if they recognize the importance of the crops currently grown by farmers of different social statuses (especially with respect to those intended for home consumption as opposed to market). In Karila, low RSS stratum households would likely seek to maintain non-tree, food-crop focussed farms, while more rice self-sufficient households would prefer

mixed or annual-perennial agroforestry systems. Efforts to improve the

stability of land tenure rights, as well as control over the disposal of farm of measures. products are, course, important supporting

Any introduced land use practices in Karila must seek to reduce the erosion, runoff and soil degradation problems in hillside farms. However, the selection of appropriate soil conservation methods should be based on both agronomic and socioeconomic parameters. In general, two types of soil conservation techniques can be employed in hillside farms, either

singly or in combination. Agronomic measures, which include the use of mulches and cover crops, require relatively little capital or labor and have been found to greatly improve both the sustainability and productivity of annual cultivation throughout the tropics (Greenland 1981). Engineering techniques, such as the construction of terraces, contour bunds and

drainage ditches, require more investment in capital and labor, but provide additional stability on steep slopes.



TABLE 7: GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE HILLSIDE FARMS (FOR THREE SOCIAL STRATA OF SMALL PRODUCERS)

RICE SELF-SUFFICIENCY CATEGORY MIDDLE uiru

General Objectives To curb soil degradation and raise agricultural productivity of hillside farms; to improve farmers' livelihood and reduce pressure to further intensify agricultural u laining forests and steep slopes

General Strategies Increase staple and supplementary food supply for home consumption

Increase staple and supplementary food supply tor home consumption; provide fodder

Increase staple and supplementary food supply for home consumption; provide fodder; generate surplus for market

Crop Production Exclusively food crops Emphasize food crops; secondary production of fodder

Emphasize food crops; secondary production of fodder and for market

Labor and Capital Availability

Lacks capital; only household labor available

Minimal capital; some non household labor available

Can afford low cost inputs; non household labor available

Potential Soil Conservation Methods

Mulching, cover crops, ditches, contour farming and bunds; exclude tree crops

Same as low stratum; in addition intercropping of nitrogen-fixing perennials

Same as low and middle strata; in addition terrace construction

Relation to Other Enterprises

High priority; coordinate with seasonal wage labor opportunities

High priority; coordinate v ith other farming activities

Secondary priority; subordinate to other farming activities

Institutional Measures

Farmer control of annual crops; move toward land stewardship

Farmer control of annual and perennial crops; move toward land stewardship

Same as middle stratum

Other Upland and Forest Resource Use

Permission to collect wild edible plants, to hunt and to cut timber for domestic use. Encourage rattan cultivation.

Agronomic methods of soil conservation are likely to be more

acceptable to low RSS households than engineering alternatives because

they require less capital and labor inputs and are relatively simple to

manage. Increased use of mulches (e.g. weed and crop residues) and cover

crops (e.g. intercropping sweet potato with corn throughout the cropping cycle in conjunction with no burning) are applicable to all food-focussed hillside farms. Intercropping of rapid-growing, perennial legumes (e.g. Gliricidia sepium and Leucaena leucocephald) in an agroforestry-contour farming system could provide additional mulch, as well as soil stability and

nitrogen fixation benefits. (It should be noted that careful management of the soil surface, not merely the presence of trees, is required for effective soil erosion and water runoff control; see Hamilton and King 1983). How?

ever, trees reduce the land area available for food-crop production due to

shading, thus agroforestry systems may not be applicable to households whose main concern is food-crop production.

In contrast, higher strata farmers, who have access to some non-household labor and purchased inputs, could potentially utilize more

labor-intensive and expensive soil conservation measures such as contour bunds and drainage ditches. High RSS households in Karila are also more likely to be receptive to the intercropping of perennial legumes in an agroforestry system; they could use the leaves for livestock fodder and, unlike lower RSS households, defer immediate returns from their hillside farms and thereby benefit from the live mulch, nitrogen fixation and soil erosion benefits this system. provided by cropping

Lastly, recognition of the multiple livelihood strategies employed by all farmers in Karila suggests that additional food and income generating



opportunities will be necessary for the success of forest management programs. In Karila, low RSS households were found to depend upon forest product collecting (especially rattan) as a major source of cash

income, while higher RSS households utilized forest resources on a

supplemental or emergency basis. A program to cultivate and manage forests via sustained yield forest-product harvesting would provide benefits to all village residents. The cultivation of rattan in hillside farms and

adjacent forests, for example, in conjunction with increased local

processing and furniture manufacturing, could not only provide collectors with a secure supply and market, but increase income and employment opportunities people village.

Studies of existing agronomic constraints, environmental conditions, and the social and context in political-economic which farmers find them? selves are essential to the development of sustainable and productive upland

are farming systems. While such studies costly both in terms of time and

money, these costs have to be weighed against the economic and social price of unrealized expectations (of both planners and farmers) and program failure. In our opinion, it is not more just research that is needed, but research that takes a broad, interdisciplinary and macro social structural and political focus. Analysis of upland farming systems with this orienta? tion should be encouraged in the Philippines and elsewhere in the tropics as critical components of soil conservation or social forestry programs.

for of all economic strata in the

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are graduate students in the Departments of Natural Resources and Rural Sociology, respectively, Cornell University. They gratefully acknowledge Cynthia Dolores V. Villegas, Visayas State College of Agriculture (ViSCA), for assistance with the soil analysis; Bert Nasayao, ViSCA, Edwin Fernando, University of the Philippines at Los Banos, and John Dransfield, The Herbarium, Kew, England for assistance in

identifying plant specimens; Romeo Raros, ViSCA, for valuable research

suggestions and ideas; and the Philippine-American Educational Founda? tion (Fulbright-Hays) and the Frank Goffio Scholarship Fund (CARE) for funding the research.

LITERATURE CITED

Aguilar, F.V. 1982 The task ahead: developing the upland through social forestry.

Philippine Studies 31:409-429.

Arnason, T., J.D.H. Lambert, J. Gale, J. Cal and H. Vernon 1982 Decline of soil fertility due to intensification of land use by shifting

in agriculturalists Belize, Central America. Agro-Ecosystems 8:27 37.



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