‘Conservation farming villages’ emerging

Like mushrooms the morning after a rainy night, "conservation farming villages" have sprouted initially in two provinces in the country.

A CFV is a model village where farmers practice and promote conservation farming technologies, among them hedgerow farming, contour farming, alley cropping, bench terracing, minimum tillage, natural vegetative strips, and sloping agricultural land technology (SALT).

CFV adopts a community-based participatory approach to technology development, promotion, and utilization in which researchers, extension workers, farmers, local government units (LGUs) and other stakeholders work and learn together.

The modality (CFV) was initiated by the ASIALAND Sloping Lands Management (ASL) network through the project "Management of Sloping Lands for Sustainable Agriculture in the Philippines". The network has been implementing researches on soil management for sloping lands in Asia since 1988.

The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) is the national coordinator for the project and the ASIALAND-ASL network.

The first CFV was set up in 1999 in Maria Paz, Tanauan City (Batangas) with funding support from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and PCARRD. It was implemented through the DA-Southern Tagalog Integrated Agricultural Research Center (STIARC) and Bureau of Soils and Water Management. (BSWM) and the Tanauan City and Maria Paz LGUs.

Various CFV practices, experiences and approaches have since been adopted by other communities in Tanauan City, reported Director Digna O. Manzanilla of PCARRD’s Agricultural Resources Management Research Division.

Dr. Manzanilla told this writer that seven other CF communities have been set up in Camarines Sur (five in Goa town and one each in Naga City and Tigaon).

The Bicol initiative was supported by CARE Philippines (an NGO) through its "Sustainable Management of Mt. Isarog Territories (SUMMIT) project, ASIALAND-PCARRD, and volunteer farmers.

The project as so far shown that farmers have gained additional income from adoption of the technologies. Experiences of successful farmers have also been documented to encourage others to duplicate their practices. — RAF