Once upon a time, the Philippines was totally covered by forest.
Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan, a noted environmentalist and wildlife photographer, wrote in an article that forests covered 70% of the Philippines in the 1900s. By the mid-1960s, only 13.5 million remained, of which barely 6.3 million hectares were considered primary forest.
During the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, forests were decimated at an astonishing rate of 300,000 hectares per year.
“As the timber boom gained momentum, the government was unable to supervise concessions effectively or enforce logging regulations,” wrote Robert Repetto, author of The Forest for the Trees? Government Policies and the Misuse of Forest Resources. “Links between timber companies and politicians further eroded government control.”
The most recent data, from the Global Forest Resources Assessment report of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), showed the country has a total forest cover of 1,014,156 hectares based on the land cover data in 2015. That means only 23.4% of the country’s total land area of 30 million hectares.
The extensive loss of forest means catastrophe for a country with a population of more than 96 million. “Failure to protect our remaining forest would mean a great loss of the country’s rich repository of biodiversity of all time,” said Fulgencio Factoran when he was still the head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Filipino environmentalists urged government agencies to do something to save the vanishing forests. But there are also some non-government organizations (NGOs) which are in the forefront of saving the country’s ecologically-fragile natural resources.
One of these NGOs is the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) Foundation, Inc., based in barangay Kinuskusan in Bansalan, Davao del Sur. It has developed a farming scheme that integrates trees with agricultural crops.
“We call it Sustainable Agroforest Land Technology or SALT 3,” says Jethro P. Adang, the current MBRLC director. “It is our possible solution to the rapid disappearance of the country’s forest cover.”
SALT 3 is actually a modification of its original Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT 1), a soil conservation technique which uses different nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs to minimize erosion. SALT 2 stands for Simple Agro-Livestock Technology, where goats are raised together still following the hedgerow system.
SALT 1 is designed for a one-hectare farm, whereas SALT 2 is suitable for a half-hectare farm. SALT 3 is appropriate for farms that are two hectares or larger, although the model system specifically requires only two hectares.
“Farmers can plant one hectare with different types of trees and the other hectare with various agricultural crops,” explains Adang. “The crops provide income for the farmer and their family while they await the growth of the trees.”
The hectare planted to agricultural crops is located in the lower section of the farm. Farmers are encouraged to grow a variety of field and permanent crops in 4–5-meter strips between double-controlled rows of nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs.
Examples of field crops are the legumes (beans, peas, and pulses), cereals (upland rice, corn, and sorghum), root crops (sweet potato, cassava, carrot, and taro), and vegetables (cabbage, ampalaya, tomato, eggplant, etc.). Permanent crops include cacao, coffee, banana, citrus, and fruit trees.
Growing diverse crops ensures food security. “Many farmers are confined to a single crop,” says Adang. For instance, a farmer might plant eggplant on his land, and upon harvesting, he may face an oversupply of eggplants in the market.
But with SALT, a farmer can harvest every now and then. “The farmer has something to look forward to,” Adang says. “Because the harvested crops are just enough for the market, there is a tendency that the price of his produce is much higher.”
Adang also recommends the cutting of hedgerows regularly (to avoid shading the crops) and using these as organic fertilizer to the crops. “The double hedgerows are pruned every 5-6 weeks and the prunings are applied to the crops as a source of fertilizer,” he says. Doing so means less expenses for the farmer.
The prunings also served as mulching materials. Mulching creates a microclimate for the plant to grow and perform better. It also protects the soil from erosion during heavy rainfall because the soil is not directly exposed to rain. More importantly, it reduces the salinity level of the soil.
“Typically, every third section of available land is allocated for permanent crops like cacao and coffee,” Adang says. “The other two sections are utilized for a mix of different cereals and vegetables. Each section has a designated area to facilitate seasonal rotation.”
He also recommends crop rotation in both sections. “Crop rotation helps in maintaining the regenerative qualities of the soil and prevents the infertility issues commonly associated with conventional farming methods,” Adang explains.
Multistory cropping may also be practiced like planting black pepper, corn, and lanzones together in one hedge. In waterlogged areas, gabi, kangkong and other water-loving crops may be grown. “We all do these to make use of all the available spaces of the farm,” says Adang.
Some of the crops are planted to feed the farmer’s family, while other crops are grown for sale, so family income is well spread out over the season. “Every week or every month, there’s always something to harvest,” he says, adding that based on their studies, the system could increase the family income threefold.
The upper section of the farm, which also spans one hectare, is cultivated with a variety of trees. Adang advises that farmers should opt for trees that are indigenous to the area rather than those that have been introduced. “These native trees are simpler to cultivate and do not require acclimatization to the area,” he says.
In the course of the interview, Adang discusses the concept of “tree time zones.” This approach allows farmers to plant trees that can mature in different time frames: from one to five years, six to ten years, and from sixteen to twenty years. Certain highly valuable trees may be left to grow for a longer duration, a practice he refers to as “the grandchild project – planting something for your grandchildren.”
Among the tree species planted in the SALT 3 model farm are bamboo, Sesbania sesban, “ipil-ipil,” Acacia auriculiformis and A. mangium, Swietenia macrophylla, Pterocarpus indicus (more popularly known as narra), and Samanea saman (rattan is planted below it).
Some of these are planted basically for fuelwood while others are for furniture purposes. As stated earlier, harvesting is staggered.
According to Adang, SALT 3 has been specifically designed for the uplands, which are home to at least a quarter of the total population and where the majority of the remaining forest is situated. These uplands are now regarded as the last frontier, as they contain the highest concentration of trees.
In the Philippine context, the uplands refer to rolling to steep terrains, with slopes that begin at 18 percent. Approximately 60% of the country’s total land area of 30 million hectares, are classified as uplands. The majority of the inhabitants in these areas are farming families who face severe poverty and insecurity.
