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Landcare as a community builder

This story was contributed by ADG content partner the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). Read other 'Stories from the Field' here.

Women are the force behind landcare in remote areas of the Philippines in a quest to reduce farm input costs, increase incomes and nourish families. Jenni Metcalfe and Mary O'Callaghan compiled this report on the leadership roles many Filipino women are adopting in their search for a better life for themselves and their communities.

The ACIAR-supported Philippines-Australia landcare project brings together groups of farmers, villagers and extension specialists and provides them with training and tools to help manage their farm, on which they depend, and some of the problems threatening the health of their land. In a region where conflict is not uncommon, their landcare movement is emerging as a community builder, with women emerging as leaders not only within the landcare groups, but also in leadership roles within local government, schools, research institutions and industry.

This photo: Ian Willett. All other photos: Jenni Metcalfe.


The treasurer
Neneng Baijang is the treasurer of one of the newest landcare groups in the village of Malisbong in southern Mindanao. She describes Malisbong as a long, narrow coastal strip of land that rises steeply to the mountains, beautiful and lush with plenty of water, but where families eke out a hand-to-mouth existence.

For Neneng, hunger is at the root of the problems in Malisbong. She is passionate about the benefits of landcare and hopes that the Malisbong Landcare group can one day inspire neighbouring communities, both Muslim and Christian: "When there is food and people are earning, there is peace," she says. "Landcare can sustain peace because productivity brings peace."

Women are often the first to take on landcare and the women in Malisbong are no different. They have planted vegetables and fruit trees around their homes as a more diverse and nutritious food source for their families and they hope to eventually increase their incomes.


The chief executive
In January 2008, the Landcare Foundation of the Philippines took over responsibility for strategic planning and support processes of ACIAR-AusAID's landcare project. This is a dream come true for Maria Aurora Laotoco, or Au as she prefers to be called, the foundation's executive officer since 2005. Au has long been passionate about the need for a single organisation to bring together landcare projects and other natural resource management activities.

"The biggest challenge I face," Au says, "is leading the foundation's members and staff to develop and transform it to an institution that is ready to push and market landcare to a broader level."

Au faces challenges at a personal level too. "Juggling the responsibilities at home and work is not easy. My work often requires me to travel for two weeks straight or more. This kind of responsibility needs a very understanding family. But I'm happy that my three children can now mainly manage on their own. And landcare is not simply work, but a life commitment to contribute something in the little way I can to rural development."



The Mayor
In the municipality of Trento in the province of Agusan del Sur, Mayor Irenea Hitigano aims to provide the woman in every family in the municipality with a pig to generate additional income. The municipal piggery is one of the projects of which she is most proud.

Irenea believes that landcare can help farmers in her community tackle poverty by reducing farm input costs and diversifying their income source.

"I do this because I want to help farmers and I want to lift their incomes. The fertilisers they buy from the stores are so expensive. One hectare of rice can cost 8,000 pesos to fertilise, but with organic fertiliser it will cost only 2,000 pesos," she explains.



The scientist
With her qualifications and experience, Dr Delia Catacutan could probably choose to live and work anywhere in the world. Indeed, she's often flying overseas for summits and meetings that seek out her skills as a social scientist working with poor rural communities in developing countries. Instead, the World Agroforestry Centre research manager chooses to work from her home town of Lantapan in a remote area of the north-central region of Mindanao.

"I like to share their experiences to inspire others across the world. And then I enjoy coming home and connecting farmers with the knowledge and resources that can help them. Ultimately, they are my clients," she explains.


The farmer
 Sergia Subaah works on a farm for a landowner in San Isidro in the north-west of Bohol, an island in the Visayan region of the Philippines. High rainfall on steep slopes was giving the landowner quite a headache.

"Big portions of our soil used to flow down onto the neighbour's rice fields below and cover the plants, killing them," Sergia says.

That all stopped after she convinced the landowner to plough the slopes as contours, rather than vertically, and to replace the corn crop with seven different crops, including a variety of fruit trees.


Article adapted from ACIAR's Partners in Research for Development magazine, March-June 2008. For further information on the ACIAR-supported Philippines-Australia landcare project please visit: http://www.landcaremates.org/

For further information on Landcare in the Philippines, please see the following resources on the ADG:

Landcare in the Southern Philippines: past, present and future
http://www.developmentgateway.com.au/jahia/Jahia/pid/7257

Economic impacts of Landcare in the central Philippines
 http://www.developmentgateway.com.au/jahia/Jahia/pid/7258

 

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