Tree Growing on Farms in Northeast Luzon (The Philippines): Smallholders’ Motivations and Other Determinants for Adopting Agroforestry Systems - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 83

Table 3.5 Main motivations of farmers for growing or not growing fruit trees (FT) or timber trees
(TT) in fields of different agro-eco zones in the Cagayan Valley, the Philippines
Motivation Household responses a (%)

Upland Lowland Hilly lowland

FT TT FT TT FT TT

For growing trees n = 85 n = 72 n = 19 n = 24 n = 17 n = 19

Home consumption 46 12 52 4 59 11

House construction - 33 - 43 - 37

Market sale 32 25 36 22 12 11

Fuelwood - 3 - 4 - 11

Other 22 27 12 27 29 30

Total 100 100 100 100 100 100

For not growing trees n = 17 n = 9 n = 79 n = 75 n = 27 n = 30

Land area too small 6 - 24 33 22 27

Preference for cash
crop for immediate
income

12 22 17 13 19 13

Trees will shade the cash
crops/crop neighbors

- 22 20 31 11 20

No capital to buy seed-
lings/inputs

17 11 5 0 22 3

Astray animals 12 - 9 7 15 13

Unavailability of good
quality seedlings

23 - 6 4 11 10

Tenant cannot choose
what crop to grow

18 22 5 4 - 3

Trees are available in
the forest

- 11 - - - -

Other 12 23 14 8 - 11
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100
a Responses are given for each of the household fields (not) containing trees and are expressed as
a percentage of the total responses in each category

forest, whether or not protected, is yet another remarkable reason for not growing
timber trees in upland fields. The main reasons for refraining from growing fruit
trees are similar to those mentioned for growing timber, with in addition the lack of
capital to buy seedlings and the unavailability of high-quality seeds or seedlings.
Asking farmers about major constraints to tree growing in general (thus not spe-
cifically referring to their own fields), they frequently refer to typhoon events (48
percent of both upland and lowland respondents). In addition, the lowland respond-
ents often refer to astray animals destroying tree seedlings and young trees (48 per-
cent as opposed to 25 percent of the upland respondents; see Photo 3.3) whereas
the uplanders identify wildfire (18 percent of respondents) as a constraint that in
turn is hardly mentioned by the lowlanders (3 percent). The fires are accidental or
deliberate (e.g., serving as a management tool; Masipiqueña et al. 2000) and mainly
occur during the dry season in grassland areas the majority of which is located in
the hilly and upland zone.