Improving Productivity, Profitability and Sustainability of Degraded Grasslands Through Tree-Based Land Use Systems in the Philippines - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 284

and (iii) animal and livestock production. The average farm income over the last 12
months for tree-based system adopters ranged from PhP 32,263 to PhP 51,691 with
an average of PhP 37,861. This was significantly higher than the average farm
income of non-adopters (PhP 15,379). This suggests that the higher farm income of
adopters may be due to increased farm fertility and productivity which, in turn, are
the result from the integration of trees into the farming system.

14.3.2 Farm Characteristics

A majority (92 percent) of the upland farmers had one to two farm parcels. On aver-
age, tree-based system adopters had a slightly higher number of farm parcels (1.5)
than the non-adopters (1.1). Total farm area ranged from 0.25 to 18 ha, with an aver-
age of 2.08 ha for all respondents. Adopters of tree-based farming systems have a
significantly higher average farm size (2.2 ha) than the non-adopters (1.19 ha).
The respondents owned the majority (59 percent) of the total farm parcels they
were cultivating. The tree-based system adopters owned about 52 to 75 percent of
their farms but only about 26 percent were owned by the non-adopters. The rest of
their farms were tenanted and rented/leased. The majority of non-tree growing farm-
ers (42 percent) were tenants of the farm parcels they tilled while only about 13 to 29
percent of the tree-based system adopters were tenants. This could be a reason for not
growing trees because they are only tenants. For farm parcels owned by farmers, a
majority of both adopters and non-adopters have titled to the land they cultivated (39
percent). The second highest proportion of land ownership was the certificate of land
transfer or CLT (25 percent), followed by ownership with no formal document, tax
declaration, certificate of stewardship contract (CSC), and mortgage.

14.3.3 Extent of Adoption of Tree-Based Land Use Systems

Survey results revealed a significant adoption of tree-based land use systems by
smallholder farmers. Of the total 192 farmers interviewed, about 86 percent have
planted trees on their farms (Table 14.2). A majority of the adopters (49 percent)
started to invest in tree growing not later than five years ago, while about 29 percent
and 22 percent planted trees in the farm between respectively six to 10 years ago
and 11 years-above (Table 14.3). On average, tree-based adopters began planting
trees on their farms about seven years ago. The high adoption rate at a later period
possibly indicates that the farmers' adoption of new technologies or land use sys-
tems was not an automatic response to the introduction of the new systems. This
happens even for land use systems or technologies with high financial returns and
more environmental benefits. The most probable reason is that the adoption of tree-
based systems may also be driven by factors other than financial considerations
such as risks (particularly income risks, and, consequently, consumption risks).