Conservation Agriculture for Food Security in Cambodia and the Philippines.

Degraded landscapes are expanding annually in Cambodia and the Philippines. Agricultural productivity is decreased which in turn heightens food insecurity and exacerbates poverty.  These conditions further stress and deplete the “last capital” for the poor namely forest and soil.  From three years of research, results show that conservation agriculture (CA) principles and practice of minimal soil disturbance, continuous mulching and diverse species rotations, constitute the best ‘tool box’ to create sustainable permanent cropping systems for annual crop production under wet tropical conditions. These reverse soil degradation, increase crop yield and profits and may reduce the labor burden on women.    We tested several conservation agriculture production systems (CAPS).  We found increasing yield of maize in CAPS compared with decreasing yield of maize grown in plow-based system.  Soil organic matter was measured to be higher in five CAPS treatments compared with the plow based system and increased from 2010 to 2012.  Furthermore, CAPS has been shown to be more resilient to drought compared with plow-based system.  Gross profit margin of CAPS was less than plow based in years 1 and 2 but greater than plow based by year 3. There are indications that farmers are seeing the potential of CAPS and will shift to it.  CAPS sowing machineries were purchased by farmers for use and for rent.  Several farmers preregistered to convert their land from plow-based to CAPS.  Stylosanthes guanensis and Arachis pintoi were found to be promising legume cover crops in the Philippine site, while Cajanus cajan and Vigna umbellata in Cambodian site.  Also, it was found that resilient ‘Adlai,’ which comes from a family of grasses and once considered as weed, has prospects to be a CAPS crop that can substitute for corn and upland rice in the Philippines.