SALT of the earth and its mission -1

GEOGRAPHICALLY, the Philippines

is an upland country because 60

percent of its 30 million hectares are

classified as such. The uplands are

rolling to steep areas where both agriculture and forestry are

practiced on slopes ranging 18 percent upward.

The upland provinces include Benguet, Mountain Province,

Ifugao, Kalinga-Apayao, Antique, Eastern and Northern Samar,

Southern Leyte, Basilan, Agusan del Norte and Sur, Bukidnon,

Surigao del Sur, Davao Oriental, and Zamboanga del Sur.

Uplanders--whose population is expected to surge to 26 million

by the year 2000--are often referred to as the ''poorest of the

poor'' in Philippine society since they survive below the poverty

line.

Poverty is reflected in their houses made of bamboo, tree barks

and cogon thatch roofs. Their sources of water are either

mountain springs or streams.

In terms of education, the upland farmer rarely finishes grade

school.

Studies show that he either drops out after the third grade or

does not even attempt to enter school. His wife, like himself,

fares no better.

Dark future

Upland inhabitants are primarily poor farming families with an

insecure land tenure. ''The upland farmer faces a very dark

future unless something can be done for him very soon,'' said

Harold Ray Watson, former director of the Davao-based

Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center. ''He is the least educated,

least paid, least healthy, least hopeful, and most neglected (in

terms of) agricultural development of all people in the

Philippines.''

With recent attempts at industrialization, most uplanders are

pushed farther to more fragile areas. ''In the Philippines,

cultivation moves>

Transfer interrupted!

levations at the expense of the remaining forests,'' said Dennis

P. Garrity, systems agronomist and regional coordinator of the

International Center for Research in Agroforestry based in

Bogor, Indonesia.

''Cultivation is seen frequently on mountain peaks.''

This explains why the country's forests are fast disappearing.

The total forest cover shrank from 10.5 million hectares in 1968

to 6.1 million hectares in 1991. The remaining old-growth forest

covered less than a million hectares in 1991 and possibly as little

as 700,000 hectares today. At current rates of logging, nearly all

vestiges of the country's primary dipterocarp forest may be

depleted in the next 10 to 15 years, ecologists claim.

''If the present rate of population growth in the uplands persists,

the corresponding expansion of upland cultivation may result

into further degradation of watersheds, increased soil erosion,

flooding, sedimentation and siltation whose effects will be felt in

the lowlands as well,'' reports the Department of Environment

and Natural Resources.

Survival

The Philippines has nine million hectares classified as eroded

soil. In 1988, the environment department said in 13 provinces,

more than 50 percent of the total area is now eroded. Soil loss

ranges from 50 to 300 tons per hectare per year. These rates

signify five to 30 times the maximum soil loss levels for any type

of soil.

''The upland (area) is the ecological and social frontier where the

battle for (the) future survival of the Filipino society will be

fought,'' said Dr. Percy E. Sajise, of the University of the

Philippines at Los Baños.

''We must help fight this battle not because of any ideology or

creed but primarily because we must assure the survival of the

coming generation of . . . Filipinos,'' said Sajise, whose

pioneering work and contribution in the field of ecology are

considered a breakthrough in providing solutions to pressing

environmental problems. ''Let us not assign this responsibility

to future generations or look around for somebody whom we

should blame . . . when we ourselves can do something about

it.''

Is there hope for the marginalized uplanders? ''In the past, there

may be none,'' says Jeff Palmer, the current MBRLC head.

''Today, we have Sloping Agricultural Land Technology and its

modifications.''

SALT is a package technology on soil conservation and food

production, integrating different soil conservation measures in

one setting.