Abstract
Soil erosion, associated loss of crop productivity and degraded water resources are serious threats to agricultural livelihoods in upland areas of the Philippines. Soil erosion is particularly important in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines, due to high seasonally concentrated rainfall, steep slopes and highly erodible soils. The impacts of common, traditional, cropping systems on soil and water degradation and farm incomes in the lnabanga watershed were studied in project LWR/2001/003 (2002 to 2006). The main cropping systems that were identified and studied included: agroforestry; woodland; oil palm; corn/cassava; grassland; irrigated rice and rainfed rice. Key environmental and socioeconomic effects of these land use systems were determined. Corn/cassava cropping on steeply sloping, highly erodible soils was determined to be a major contributor to soil erosion and also resulted in the lowest economic returns to the farmers. The project was initiated following an external review of an earlier project LWR/2001/003, ACIAR continued its focus on Bohol with the implementation of a new project in 2007. The project, reported here, built on the soil erosion, hydrologic and financial lessons learned in Project LWR/2001/003 and joined forces with community-based implementation activities funded by ACIAR and other agencies. The Project was developed after discussions and close consultation with the Philippine agencies: Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and built on the experience and expertise developed through the earlier ACIAR Projects LWR/2001/003 and ASEM/2002/051. Key objectives of the project were to demonstrate, quantify and provide examples to farmers of the environmental and farm-level economic benefits that can be realised by implementing selected best management practices for soil, water and crop management in shallow sloping landscapes.
Original language | English |
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Place of Publication | Canberra, A.C.T. |
Publisher | The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research |
Number of pages | 6 |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) 2016. This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from ACIAR, GPO Box 1571, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia, [email protected]Keywords
- agriculture
- soils
- water-supply
- Philippines