ABSTRACT
Increasing population and dwindling availability of lowland areas for crop production have led to a significant level of migration into the uplands of the Philippines. About 30% of the country’s total population lives in upland areas with slopes greater than 18% (Cruz and Zoza-Feranil 1988). Under increased pressure for subsistence food production, a large proportion of the country’s upland hilly areas have now been converted to permanent cultivation or fallow rotation (Marchand 1987; Garrity 1993). As one consequence of this pressure on upland areas, there was great interest among researchers and extensionists in soil conservation technology, involving contour hedgerow intercropping, in the mid-1970s (Garrity 1993). Since then, these technologies have been modified by indigenous innovations. Among other things, these local adaptations have made them less demanding of labor.
