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Sustainability
NESCAFÈ educates Filipino coffee farmers on soil erosion
July 2007
NESCAFÈ educates Filipino coffee farmers on soil erosion
ONE way of improving food production is to prevent the degradation of fertile land and a coffee training farm in Tagum City, Davao del Norte advocates this concept in all their programs.
Leading coffee brand NESCAFÈ includes a comprehensive lecture on Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT) in its coffee agriculture training program at Nestlé Experimental and Developmental Farm (NEDF) .
The program, which range from three days to two weeks, covers the latest in coffee production technology from nursery management, planting and cultivation, harvesting up to marketing and is conducted for free and without any government subsidy. NEDF even provides participants with free board and lodging.
Since its establishment in 1994, NEDF has trained over 10,000 farmers and agricultural students – almost one-fifth of the country’s current total coffee farmers.
Grain of SALT
SALT is a package technology on soil conservation and food production, integrating different soil conservation measures in just one setting. Basically, SALT is a method of growing field and permanent crops in three-meter to five-meter-wide bands between contoured rows of nitrogen fixing trees.
Coffee is one of them, which can also be cacao, citrus and other fruit trees.
The strips not occupied by permanent crops, however, are planted alternately to cereals (corn, upland rice, sorghum, etc.) or other crops (sweet potato, melon, pineapple, castor bean, etc.) and legumes (soybean, mung bean, peanut, etc.). This cyclical cropping provides the farmer additional harvest throughout the year.
The topsoil, which contains plant nutrients, air and moisture, is essential to a productive agriculture and therefore should be protected from soil erosion. Soil erosion, which is more prevalent in hilly or sloping areas, can be controlled in a number of ways through reforestation, terracing, multiple cropping, contouring, and cover cropping.
“SALT, a diversified farming system, is the easiest and least expensive way of controlling soil erosion,” says Zenon Alenton, NEDF’s supervisor and agronomist.
Developed by Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center in 1970s in Davao del Sur, SALT is a technology developed for Asian farmers with few tools, little capital, and little learning in agriculture.
Farm malpractices
“Ploughing is good on flatlands but is not advisable on uplands,” warns Alenton. “You need the least disturbance of the topsoil on sloping areas as it is more exposed to wind and water elements than the flatlands.”
Alenton also advises against kaingin or slash-and-burn method of farming.
“Kaingin is not good in soil conservation because it kills the smallest of plants and dries up the soil,” says Alenton.
“If a farmer needs to clear out the land for farming, the best way is to do it manually,” stresses Alenton. “Although it is more labor extensive, it’s more beneficial for the soil in the long run.”
Alenton says soil erosion is most prevalent in typhoon-built area, land with sandy or silty-type of soil, and land that has been logged as loose soil can easily get eroded.
“SALT is simple, low-cost but effective in preventing soil erosion,” says Alenton. “I can not stress enough how important soil conservation is but to put it simply, a fertile land translates to increased crop yield and income for the farmers.” |
