During the year 2004 and 2005, our group headed by the late Dr. Jose D. Rondal of the Soil Conservation, Management Division of the Bureau of Soils and Water management was invited by the Department of Agrarian Reform to provide lectures to the farmers cultivating sloping marginal areas. Most of these farmers are Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries. We provided lectures on the following topics: Watershed Management, Soil Erosion and Consequences, Agro-forestry, Soil Fertility Management, Soil Conservation Practices, Cropping Pattern and Cropping System, Economics of Soil Conservation and provide hands-on in Farm Planning and Soil Analysis. We conducted lectures in Leyte, Abra, Zambales, Isabela, Bukidnon, Davao, Bicol and Aklan. There are about 25 farmers in each batch of training giving us a total of 200 trained farmers.
While, almost all farmers knew their lands were declining in fertility, very few of them, in fact, in some location, nobody associated the decline in soil fertility due to soil erosion. Most of the farmer’s participants during the training were not seriously concerned about soil erosion even though they are aware of a decline in soil fertility and productivity due to continuous farming of the same land. One time, I asked them to define soil erosion; they associate it with mass movement (land slide) and formation of gullies (more than 300 mm depth). They are aware of gullies but not soil erosion. Most of the problems they brought out when I asked them “what are the problems they consider that restrict productivity” include: pest and diseases, water or moisture problem, weeds and declining soil fertility but not erosion.
Farmer’s lack of concern about soil erosion is partly obtained by the fact that many of the farmers in sloping marginal lands do not recognize that soil erosion is occurring. In addition, actual yields are determined more by the quality of soil remaining in-situ than the amount of soil lost. Furthermore, changes in climate, particularly rainfall can mask any impact of soil loss in the subsequent yields. Farmer’s tendency not to identify soil erosion as a problem probably is the main reason why adoption of soil conservation technologies is very poor. Farmers seldom see soil erosion a consequence of land degradation as a problem and are, therefore, very unlikely to adopt practices unless the practices address their main concern which are increased and regular production.
For more info: Call: Dr. Gavino Isagani P. Urriza At: (02) 923-04-59 Or email us a gurriza258@yahoo.com or visit us at: conservationist.wordpress.com
