Philippines - Achievements

1. Overview
2. Country Strategy
3. Priorities
4. Key Program Managers
5. Current Projects
6. Concluded Projects
7. Achievements
8. Relevant Publications
9. Country News and Stories
10. Project Locations
11. Country Office
12. Country Portfolio
13. Fellowship Statistics

Achievements

Key indicators and performance for 2008-09

Indicator: Two major new horticultural programs that address major constraints in horticultural value chains in the southern Philippines underway

Performance: Two new initiatives in the southern Philippines, the first targeting constraints in mango, papaya, durian and jackfruit value chains, and the second enhanced profitability of solanaceous crops, protected cropping and other high-value vegetable crop value chains, are both underway.

Indicator: Successful adoption by farmers of better herbicide-use strategies and weed management options in direct-seeded rice

Performance: Herbicide-use strategies and weed management techniques have been disseminated to farmers, providing them various options to control weeds in direct-seeded rice.

Indicator: Community adoption of a multi-stakeholder approach to optimising soil and water resource sustainability and farmer incomes in southern and northern Luzon

Performance: Research on enhancing agricultural production by sustainable use of shallow groundwater, and minimising agricultural pollution to enhance water quality, in Laguna de Bay has supported farmers by providing technologies to manage water resources sustainably.

Indicator: Institutionalisation of the national landcare program through a Philippines-led organisation

Performance: Efforts to institutionalise the landcare movement at the national level continue. Grassroots regional landcare initiatives are having significant success.

Indicator: Improvement in tree seedling supply resulting from economic and policy changes in the Philippines nursery sector in at least two provinces of the southern Philippines

Performance: Seed supply has been increased through piloting of new nursery accreditation and seedling certification policies, and development of nursery accreditation guidelines, policy and strategies for implementation.

Achievements from the 2008-09 Annual Report

Subprogram 1: Increasing the market competitiveness of Philippines agricultural products

1A: Meeting market specifications for horticultural products

The El Niño Southern Oscillation affects the Philippines and Australia, and both countries routinely rely on seasonal climate forecasts to prepare for unfavourable weather. The challenge is to find knowledge from climate science—seasonal climate forecasting information—that is communicated in a timely manner in a form that can be understood and acted on. A project has provided extra resources to the meteorological service, Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), to engage with decision-makers and intermediaries in local government to lift the country’s capacity to undertake seasonal forecasts. A highlight of the project was the development of a game that simplified instruction on the use of probabilistic seasonal climate forecasts, and this has been used with farmers and advisers in both Australia and the Philippines. The game has attracted interest from the head office of the World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva and from meteorological services in Pacific island countries, India, Africa and Brazil. PAGASA plan to institutionalise the methodologies of the project within their own systems.

1B: Higher returns from horticulture products

In the Philippines mangoes are an important crop for plantation and smallholder farming in dry regions. Despite a range of measures including pesticides and baiting, no reliable pest controls exist, and this can lead to losses of up to 40%. Establishing disinfestation and meeting quarantine compliance is expensive and time consuming. A project is introducing integrated field management, which includes improved monitoring, control and detection of pests.

The project has identified five insect pests that damage mango leaves, flowers and fruits. On fruits, mango seed borer contributed much of the damage, with an average fruit damage of 19.5%, followed by mango fruit fly at 11% and cecid fly at 3.5%. IPM interventions successfully reduced the overall fruit damage to 4.8% and gave significant yield of 140 kg per tree, compared with farmers’ practice with damage of 7.5% and yield of 50 kg per tree.

A major program thrust aims to improve the smallholder and industry profitability and export competitiveness of selected tropical fruits in the southern Philippines. Fruit crops targeted are mango, papaya, durian and jackfruit. The primary audience for the outcomes of this program are medium- to large-scale commercial fruit growers and farmers, predominantly in the regions of Leyte, northern Mindanao–Cagayan de Oro and southern Mindanao–Davao. This program has six major components. Some of the highlights of the research during the past year included work on the supply chain analysis of Philippine papaya. The research team visited buying stations, wholesale and retail markets, consolidators' warehouses and supermarkets. They determined that a multilayered distribution and disaggregate sector characterised the papaya supply chain. Between the farm and the final market the chain undergoes 10–12 handling steps. Enhancing awareness by the handlers as well as the key players and decision-makers in the chain on the role of appropriate postharvest handling is one of the initial steps in improving the supply chain.

Another major program thrust is studying enhanced profitability of selected vegetable value chains in the southern Philippines. Components of this huge study include integrated soil and crop nutrient management in vegetable crops, protected cropping structures to help farmers grow crops in the wet season, and novel approaches to controlling bacterial and fungal diseases. The project has also undertaken a review of the institutional fresh vegetable markets in metropolitan Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao. The market review revealed considerable differences in quality between the modern retail supermarkets, the food manufacturers and processors, the food service sector and the needs of the traditional wet market. Furthermore, regional differences in climate and topography influence the range, quality and quantity of vegetables available from local producers; and differences in household income, tourism, transport and infrastructure shape both the institutional demand and the extent to which vegetables are traded between regions.

1C: Competitive and sustainable aquaculture production

The bivalve mollusc industry is well established throughout the Philippines archipelago, based principally on oyster and mussel culture. However, considering the overall importance of aquaculture in the country, and the well-developed research and regional administration networks that exist, mollusc culture has not shown the same level of growth as elsewhere. In addition, there exist significant regional differences within the Philippines; for example, Luzon growers typically obtain better prices for their product than Western Visayas growers, and production volumes are also variable between regions. Furthermore, there is no export market for Philippine bivalves despite increasing international demand. A scoping study conducted to obtain an industry overview of these two regions pinpointed differences between Luzon and Western Visayas—notably higher growth rates, differences in culture systems, different demographic profiles of industry participants and differences in microbiological status. The results will lead to further research to develop the industry in Western Visayas, with a view to both equalising and enhancing the prospects for regional production and export markets for bivalve products.

Subprogram 2: Farmer-based land and water resource management for profitable and sustainable agriculture

A project involved the study of herbicide-use strategies and weed management options for Philippine and Australian cropping. A survey of 400 rice growers in two major rice-growing regions, Nueva Ecija and Iloilo, established baseline weed management practices used by farmers, and scoped farmer perceptions of weed issues and weed management options. The survey found that farmers were highly dependent on herbicides (spraying from one to three times per season) and were using herbicides that had a high risk of leading to herbicide resistance. The research team initially established four field sites for on-farm trials of integrated weed management (IWM) versus farmers’ practice, then expanded to four additional sites. At all the study sites the team observed reduced weed weights, increased yields, higher profits and reduced number of herbicide applications when IWM was applied to control weeds compared with farmers’ practice. An evaluation after two to three seasons indicated that 75% of the cooperators and 10% of neighbouring farmers were adopting IWM on their farms.

Research efforts have been underway to minimise agricultural pollution and enhance water quality in Laguna de Bay (Philippines) and Mt Lofty Ranges (Australia). In the Philippines four sites are under study—Lucban (vegetable production system), Pagsanjan (rice production system), Cavinti (coconut and mixed land use) and Majayjay (piggeries) in the Pagsanjan–Lumban catchment. Analysis of water samples for nutrients, total suspended sediment and selected pesticides continued during 2008 at these four sites, which had been previously instrumented for continuous monitoring of water flow and a range of water quality parameters. Grab samples were also collected at the confluence of the Balanac and Bombongan rivers, close to the outflow to Lake Laguna, to provide an indication of the nutrient, sediment and pesticide concentrations entering the lake.

Landcare has been successfully adopted at three sites in Mindanao, in part through ACIAR project efforts, with substantial positive impacts reported at the grassroots level during an end-of-project review held in April. Both smallholder farmers and agro-enterprise operators are benefiting from the project’s impacts. A substantial component of the project has been the enabling of the Landcare Foundation of the Philippines Inc (LFPI), helping it to evolve and take on defined roles and responsibilities for the broader development of landcare in the Philippines. A 5-year strategic plan for LFPI was developed, approved by the Board of Trustees and implemented.

All three regional programs showed significant outcomes and impacts: in the northern Mindanao program, through the agroenterprise development work with a banana marketing cluster at Claveria and two vegetable marketing clusters in Lantapan; in the southern Mindanao program, through the agroenterprise development work with a vegetable marketing cluster at Ned and the testing of a landcare approach in a conflict area of Muslim Mindanao; and in the Bohol program, through the successful adaptation of the landcare approach for securing vegetable gardens for households in the municipality of Pilar. Deployment of an Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development volunteer, Scott Graham, at the Bohol site assisted with skills-building in evaluation of soil and soil health improvement, and included the production of a soil-health training book printed in both English and Visayan.

On Bohol Island in the Philippines there are opportunities for farmers to reduce some of the negative aspects of agricultural activity through the introduction of conservation techniques, undertaken in association with existing landcare approaches that provide training and encourage adoption. Building on the experience and expertise developed through earlier ACIAR projects, a project is promoting the adoption of improved farming practices on highly erodible soils on steeply sloping uplands in two upper watersheds in Bohol. A key objective of this project is to quantify, demonstrate and provide farmers with examples of the environmental and farm-level economic benefits that can be realised by implementing selected best management practices for soil, water and crop management in affected areas. To this end the project team has established three improved practice and three conventional practice farmer-managed demonstration sites in the upper Inabanga watershed, focusing on a corn–cassava rotation on the highly erodible soils of the sloping uplands. The project has actively introduced improved farming practices with the potential to increase farmers’ production.

Subprogram 3: Addressing regulatory, policy and technical constraints to the adoption of research outputs

ACIAR project scientists have determined that the current organisation of public- and private-sector nurseries in the Philippines has not provided farmers with seedlings of appropriate quality in an equitable manner. A project aims to improve the quality of nurseries in both these sectors and ensure better integration between them, and introduce better market structures that address issues of unmet demand for seedlings. The pilot testing of a nursery accreditation and seedling certification policy commenced in three municipalities. In early 2009 team members led the development of a draft national policy for an accreditation scheme for nurseries. During the year the project developed a database of mother trees in Leyte, and this has been distributed to private nursery operators, managers of government nurseries and other interested parties. A similar database is being compiled in the study area in northern Mindanao. The project also established a seed centre at Leyte State University. This centre has distributed seeds of various species to partner municipalities, disseminated a nursery best management practices manual to nursery operators, and provided information of nursery locations to seedling buyers. A workshop in Manila briefed national and provincial government representatives on progress to date as part of measures to help institutionalise the policy outcomes of the project at a national level.