13
Landcare and Livelihoods: The
Promotion and Adoption of Conservation
Farming Systems in the Philippine
Uplands
R. A. Cramb
and Z. CulaseroIntroduction
Agricultural land degradation in the densely populated, steeply sloping upland
regions of the Philippines has been recognized as a major environmental problem
in the past three dec ades, with significant on-site and off-site impacts (Cramb,
1998). Conservation farming systems have been developed, such as the widely
pro moted Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT), based on contour hedge-
rows of shrub legumes, but sustained uptake by farmers has been limited (Cramb,
2000; Cramb et al, 1999, 2000). In recent years, interest has focused on the poten-
tial of the landcare approach to enhance the development, dissemination and
adoption of appropriate conservation farming measures (Mercado et al, 2001).
Landcare emerged in the mid-1980s in Austra lia and in the late-1990s in the
Philippines as an important strategy for developing collective action at the local
level to deal with problems of agricultural land degradation. The landcare approach
centres on the formation of community landcare groups, supported to varying
degrees through partnerships with government and non-government agencies.
Campbell defines a community landcare group as ‘a group of people concerned
about land degradation problems, who are interested in working together to do
something positive for the long-term health of the land’ (1994, p31). Such groups
identify pro blems at the local level and mobilize information, community effort
and finances to help improve the management of their soil, water, vegetation and
other natural resources. It is widely held that this is a more effective strategy for
Reprinted from Cramb R A and Culasero Z. 2003. Landcare and livelihoods: The promotion and
adoption of conservation farming systems in the Philippine Uplands. Int. J. Agric. Sust. 1(2), 141–154,
Earthscan, London.