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Indigenous fallow management systems in the Cordillera

By Montañosa Research and Development Center (MRDC)

First of two parts

Introduction

Research has confirmed that traditional shifting cultivation practices employed by peasants of the Cordillera are not necessarily destructive. On the contrary, many of the systems used in the cultivation of their swidden, locally called uma, have a strong conservation orientation (Angelo et al. 1987). As a consequence, uma cultivation has been sustainable over a long period. This is attributed to the wisdom of the farmers, their careful use of resources, and their practice of controlled burning. As Olofson described in 1981;

“Burning requires a good deal of skill and precise evaluation of the microenvironment and the general climatic context to make certain that a thorough and even fertilizer layer is achieved and that adjacent forest and dwellings are not accidentally damaged. Burning among traditional shifting cultivators is therefore controlled.”

After several harvests, the traditional shifting cultivator of the Cordillera lets the uma lie fallow for seven to twenty years to allow the soil to regenerate its fertility. However, in recent times, farmers have had to shorten the fallow period because the swidden sites are already constricted. This has been due to population increase, the incursion of extractive industries into agricultural areas, particularly commercial logging and mining, and the conversion of many traditional farming areas to large scale cash crop production. The shorter fallow periods have resulted in a significant decrease in crop yields. Nevertheless, uma harvests continue to make a major contribution to the food needs of the local population.

Given this context, shifting cultivation is often accused of being the main culprit in forest degradation and many development planners consider it inappropriate to contemporary conditions. They have campaigned indiscriminately for its replacement with intensive cash crop cultivation, and this usually requires heavy use of external inputs.

The Montañosa Research and Development Center (MRDC), advocates an alternative approach. It believes that agricultural development should build on traditional practices that have sustained rural communities for centuries. Therefore, it sees the need to develop a detailed knowledge of traditional farming practices in selected areas and to determine their underlying principles, so that recommendations can be made for the development of shifting cultivation.

Fallow Management Practices

There are several types of fallow management as commonly practiced in the Cordillera. We shall be discussing four of these management systems. One such is the planting of biomass-producing plants like the sunflower and the anablon. Another type is the use of pigeon peas as both main and a fallow crop. The Mangali tribe in Tanudan, Kalinga use the Apa system and the Amak system.

Biomass-producing plants

Biomass producing plants include the sunflower which farmers in Mountain Province use as a fallow crop. In Ifugao, the anablon is utilized.

Use of Sunflower

Across Mountain Province, wild sunflower (tithonia diversifolia) is widely used as an organic fertilizer. It is used in two different ways: (a) during land preparation of both irrigated and non-irrigated land, slashed sunflower plants are directly incorporated into the soil as green manure, or (b) sunflower often serves as a main component of compost piles in farms.

For it to be readily available for these purposes, sunflower is planted as hedgerows, near stonewalls, and at the edges of rice paddies, home gardens and camote (sweet potato) fields.

The Bontok people also plant sunflower next to streams and rivers. The area biomass is cut at designated times, immersed in the water to accelerate decomposition, and the released nutrients are carried downstream and into irrigation canals.

Farmers at Maligcong, Ankileng, and Pidlisan make intensive use of sunflower as a green manure crop to rebuild soil fertility in fallowed fields. When opening swiddens, part of the final phase of land preparation is the planting of wild sunflower cuttings. The cuttings, about 0.5 m. in length, are planted in an “X” formation or in parallel strips on the steepest portion of the uma. After the first crop is harvested, in four to nine months, the plants are pruned and their biomass incorporated into the soil in the more gently sloping parts of the field. Alternatively, it may simply be laid on the ground and left to decompose. Management varies according to the crop grown. When pruning sunflower, at least 0.5 m of stem is left to ensure rapid re-growth. Systematic pruning of the sunflower in this manner, each time leaving the biomass in the field, is a routine part of swidden management.

During the fallow period, the sunflower is left to multiply and choke out cogon (Imperata Cylindrica) and other weeds. It is a common practice in Bayyo, Bontoc among farmers to plant additional sunflower cuttings within the swidden to increase the density of the plant’s stand before leaving the field to fallow. This ensures that sunflower dominates the fallow succession.

Sunflower has the following characteristics that recommend it as effective fallow species: it produces large amount of biomass in a short time; its dense canopy protects the soil from direct sunlight, thus providing a more favorable environment for soil organisms and, at the same time, preventing the growth of imperata cylindrica; and, its widely distributed roots trap debris and inhibit down slope soil movement.

However, as a fallow species, sunflower is limited by its shallow root system, which is unable to recycle leached nutrients from lower soil depths. Despite this limitation, field trials involving a two year sunflower fallow showed a marked increase in yield from a subsequent crop of bush sitao (Vigna sinensis), one of the most widely grown legume vegetables in the Cordillera region. When planted half a meter apart over the experimental plots, the sunflower fallow resulted in a virtual doubling of yield from the subsequent sitao crop. Wider spacing of the sunflower plants resulted in a lesser increase in crop yield. Researchers reported that the trial plots also showed a marked increase in soil organic matter.

The use of Anablon

Anablon or Trema orientalis, like T. diversifolia, is fast growing and accumulates biomass rapidly. At Bangbang, Hungduan, in Ifugao province, shifting cultivators collect T. orientalis seeds in August and sow them in swidden fields at the start of the fallow period.

Continued next issue

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