Agroforestry pathways towards sustainable land-use

The research which consists of two parts was carried out in the uplands of the municipality of Baybay, Leyte, Philippines. The first part of Dekker and Parma, 1992 consisted of the identification of the research areas, an inventory of socio-economic problems faced by farmers in the area, current farming systems used, and environmental problems related to land use. The objective of this exercise was to design a set of agroforestry technologies which can halt environment degradation, and yield and income reduction. The selection of suitable practices was done with the help of the pathways theory for shifting cultivation as developed by Raintree and Warner (1986). In total, none alternatives were formulated. Luijt and Ripper conducted the second part of the research in 1993. The objective was to take the proposed agroforestry technologies, test their suitability in the field and to recommend the most promising ones. After further refinement technologies, informal talks with key farmers were used to assess the adoptability of the proposed technologies as well as to obtain feedback on possible improvements to the designs. The productivity and sustainability proposals were evaluated. A qualitative analysis was used for this exercise due to insufficient data. Lastly, using the results from this ex-ante evaluation as well as data on the physical aspects of the area, a suitability classification was developed based on the FAO methodology of land evaluation for forestry (1984) and adapted to agroforestry according to Young (1990). This resulted in the selection of the technologies deemed most suitable for the research area. The diagnosis and design methodology should be seen as an iterative process during the remaining stages, i.e. further research and implementation phases. It was necessary to take steps back in the methodology so as to constantly refine the proposals according to the demand of the users and the environment they are working in. The participatory approach was used so that the most favorable result can be reached to benefit both farmers and their environment