ACIAR and other organisations have conducted several programs in the Philippines and Australia to develop technologies suited to farming systems on steep land, in high-erosion areas or other potentially unsustainable situations. But further studies suggest that too few of the new ideas have been adopted for any long-term impact. Often it seems conservation research work fails to translate into adoption beyond the core project sites.
Investigations suggest that adoption in the Philippines is more likely in cases where both appropriate technologies and committed community groups exist. The situation in Australia supports this, even though the farming and social systems are so different in the two countries. Australian adoption of Landcare has been particularly successful in broad-acre and grazing regions where most landholders and much of the general population are involved in the farming industry. But it has been unsuccessful in horticultural areas where farms are usually smaller, more diverse and segmented. There is a limited domestic market and competition tends to be strong with little industry cooperation.
The project aimed to facilitate the development of Landcare activities in upland Philippine farming communities and in Australian horticulture industries, and to evaluate the effectiveness of Landcare in achieving conservation practices.
The research consisted of two main areas: the first refined and implemented an appropriate Landcare model at three nodes in Mindanao Island, Philippines, which together covered a range of socio-economic and bio-physical environments, and in the hinterland in southeast Queensland.
In the Philippines each node became a centre of work that aimed to develop appropriate practices for resource conservation and to promote these for adoption by farmers. A Filipino Landcare facilitator was trained then employed full-time at each node,
A Landcare facilitator was also appointed in Queensland to work with horticultural groups there and encourage the creation of new Landcare groups in the production areas of the Sunshine Coast and the Lockyer Valley.
The second area of research concentrated on evaluating the impact of the Landcare approach on the adoption of practices to reduce resource degradation. The team also assessed the relevance of the Landcare approach as an extension model to link communities, government and technologists.
The project has demonstrated, via the Landcare approach, that farmer-led participatory development processes can achieve a greater degree of change than the traditional 'dole-out' and top-down approach of implementing projects, often evident in the Philippines. More than 400 Landcare groups are now in operation at the three project sites in the island of Mindanao (a region whose high poverty levels have gained it special attention for Australian development assistance). Over 4230 households are now involved as members of Landcare groups.
The entry point for the formation of the Landcare groups was the conservation technology of leaving unploughed natural vegetative strips (NVS) across the contour. From one-third to two-thirds of farmers in each site adopted soil conservation technologies. At one site there are now 1500 hectares of such strips, at another where there had been minimal adoption prior to project commencement the area is approaching 1000 hectares. Because farm size is small, the change is very significant on a per farm basis.
Following the establishment of grass strips to stabilise soil, there is an evolution towards intensification between and on the strips, particularly via tree planting (in approximately 50 per cent of cases to date). Over 150,000 fruit and timber trees were planted at the Lantapan site during the course of the project, grown from seedlings produced by Landcare groups. Initially the Australian component struggled to apply a Landcare model to the challenging environment of horticultural farmer groups in southeast Queensland. One of its achievements was to work with the Subtropical Treefruit Growers Association to set up an environmental auditing process by its members. In conjunction with the same group, the project has helped gain funding for a Waterwatch project to monitor water quality. The project has also helped initiate pineapple grower discussion groups with fruit canner Golden Circle, involving around 50 farmers. Project members decided to work with existing industry groups rather than attempt to form new Landcare/Farmcare groups; the more conservative industry groups viewed Landcare as being 'green' rather than being concerned about the broader needs of full time farmers. A change in the name of the program to 'Farmcare' to an extent dissipated some of these concerns.
Both the Philippines and Australian components have dynamically redefined the Landcare approach to incorporate livelihoods perspectives, largely to meet the expressed needs of the farmers with whom the project worked.
Links:
[1] http://www.aciar.gov.au/country/Philippines
[2] http://www.aciar.gov.au/programarea/Agricultural Systems Management