Potentials of agroforestry in climate change adaptation:experiences of the selected agroforestry farmers in the Philippines
2011
Tolentino, L.L. | Cabahug. R.D. | Paelmo, R.F. | de Luna, C.C. | Landicho, L.D., Philippines Univ. Los Baños, College,Laguna (Philippines)
This paper argues that agroforestry offers great potentials to agroforestry practitioners in adapting to the impacts of climate change in their farming systems. Agroforestry is a land use management system that combines the production of woody perennials and agricultural crops, together with livestock and/or aquatic resources for the twin purpose of ecological stability and socioeconomic productivity. Drawing from the actual experiences and insights of the agroforestry farmers, this paper also validates the claims of various researchers and scientists about the multiple benefits from agroforestry, that would in turn, help the farmers become more resilient in their farming systems and livelihood strategies and be able to adapt with the impacts of climate change. This paper further argues that the diversity of crop components in an agroforestry farm help maintain farm production despite the changing seasonal phenomena to wit, rainfall distribution and temperature pattern. The economic loss in one crop may be compensated by the other crops. In addition, this paper highlights the specific coping strategies of the agroforestry farmers. These include: a) modification in the cultural and silvicultural management practices, b) modification in the cropping pattern, c) maintaining crop diversity, d) proper combination of both the annual and perennial components, and e) site species matching. Recognizing the potentials of agroforestry and other farmer-initiated mechanisms in climate change adaptation, this paper urges not only the farming communities, but also the concerned institutions to intensify advocacy on agroforestry technology adoption in the agriculture and forestry sectors in order to cope with the long-term impacts of climate variability.
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