Enhancing farmer adoption of simple conservation practices: Landcare in the Philippines

Abstract

This paper evaluates the technical, socio-economic, and institutional constraints contributing to the slow adoption of contour hedgerow conservation practices in the Philippines. The authors discuss the dissemination of Natural Vegetative Strips (NVS) as an effective alternative, which was much more rapidly disseminated through the Landcare approach. The key actors and factors of Landcare are discussed, including methodology and relationships between the community, LGUs, and technical service providers. The paper also presents the aspects that made Landcare so successful and issues to address in scaling up the program.