1.3 IVORY TOWER SCIENCE KNOCKS ON THE DOOR OF UPLAND FARMER JUAN (early 2000 Philippines)
I was not really keen then of doing a college technical thesis or the idea of a PhD. But the science world (i.e. The World Agroforestry Center or ICRAF) beckoned in CY 2000. There was a great need to reach out to (upland) farmer Juan and (lowland) mayor Pedro (LGU). Thus, started my love affair with the action-oriented science of Agroforestry.
Ideas that inspired usthen (2000-2005)
Half of our land is mountain and hills, too limited flat land (we also don’t have a Mekong River) and too many people- what to do?
Agroforestry it is about growing trees in the agricultural landscape
Agroforestry has a very critical role in Philippine agriculture and environment
Flash back to the 90s We prepared a working paper with the above title. Presented internationally, this sought to capture the development management implications of work in the interrelated work them on agroforestry and social forestry.
The niche of agroforestry in the Philippine Ridge to Reef transect, 1990s. The prequel to the story of our involvement in agroforestry in 2000 (from paper on Queblatin, Agroforestry in the Philippines- A tour of the horizon)
There is a lot of local agroecological knowledge at farmer level but most of it is tacit (unspoken) such as those of Lumad communities (including women) in Mindanao. Agroforestry science in the Philippines during this period wanted to recognize the tacit knowledge.
Agroforestry in the Philippines
Scientists from ICRAF observed farmer preferences and practices in Mindanao and together they evolved a recommendation called the natural vegetative strips or NVS. This approach was a cheaper and more doable alternative to the conventional terracing then. The simplicity and low cost enhanced the quick spread of practice (ref: photo from ICRAF Philippines, 2005)
We developed development messages for local governments (such as the ICRAF booklet above), explaining the need for taking charge of their watersheds, forests and rivers .and to do it locally with LGU and Citizen resources … don’t wait for Manila …
An evening technical brainstorming session invariably concludes a hard day’s field work. This was my idea of getting the job done as part of the idea of agroforestry @Juan’s door… (with DAR and NGO friends in the southwest). Lakewood Zamboanga
The ICRAF stint covered Southeast Asia but I was blessed that my headquarters was in a small corner office within the UP Los Baños campus forests (with all the sights and sounds) as backdrop. These pix inspired my son to draw about its leisurely implications (my cover picture)
Thought leaders, Co-travelers
Glo, May, Amy, Dwane, Jeff, Maridol, RJ, Chun, Imee
Dennis Garrity, Jun Mercado, Delia Catacutan, Lyndon Arbes, Ann Delo Angeles, Lakewood Community, ICRAF SEA team, ICRAF Phil team, SANREM team. I couldn’t find a more committed team!
Insights
Agroforestry is more known as a technology, highly respected as a concept but not in practice, it is not spreading as fast as desired.
Commodity driven monoculture (e.g. yellow corn, etc.) agriculture is rapidly spilling over to the hilly lands, even earlier agroforestry efforts are being converted to the new land use.
Undeveloped markets for agroforestry products constrain its adoption and spread, but this is not insurmountable
Despite the high need for it, agroforestry is still an” institutional orphan” — neither DENR nor DA is sufficiently serious yet in adopting this.
Today, agroforestry is part of the “bundle “of modern-day life support systems such as the concept of climate change mitigation, or ecosystems-based adaptation (EBA). or even biodiversity friendly agriculture!
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