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The shifting ground of swidden agriculture on Palawan Island, the Philippines

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Abstract

Recent literature describing the process and pathways of the agrarian transition in Southeast Asia suggests that the rise of agricultural intensification and the growth of commodity markets will lead to the demise of swidden agriculture. This paper offers a longitudinal overview of the conditions that drive the agrarian transition amongst indigenous swidden cultivators and migrant paddy farmers in central Palawan Island, the Philippines. In line with regional agrarian change, we describe how a history of conservation policies has criminalized and pressured swidden farmers to adopt more intensive “modern” agricultural practices. We examine how indigenous swidden cultivators adjust their practice in response to recent changes in policies, security of harvests, and socio-cultural values vis-à-vis intensification. Rather than suggest that this transition will lead to the demise of swidden, results reveal that farmers instead negotiate a shifting ground in which they lean on and value swidden as a means of negotiating agrarian change.

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Notes

  1. We define swidden agriculture as the intermittent clearing of forest for staple food crop production, followed by a much longer period of forest fallow, which restores the productivity of the land (Conklin 1957; Cramb et al. 2009). Rotational swidden farming contrasts with sedentary farming which remains in one place.

  2. We further distinguish between (a) “integral” swidden practices based on traditional farming practices; culture; greater species diversity; and longer fallows from “incipient” swiddens based on sustained periods of cultivation; less integration into culture and lifeways; and production of crops destined for permanent, intensified production (Conklin 1957; Kundstadter et al. 1978). While Brookfield (2007) argues that many integral swiddens have long been mixed with other cropping practices, some of which are more intensified than others, we maintain that differences exist between smaller, more diverse swiddens embedded in lifeways, and shorter fallow swiddens featuring uniform row crops. We also differentiate swidden cycles and fallows from agroforestry plots that are usually planted with permanent hardwoods and tend to fall outside of swidden rotation. However, we acknowledge that the distinction remains ambiguous.

  3. In this paper, paddy rice refers to both lowland irrigated and rain fed (Tubigan) wet rice cultivation, which in Buenavista-Cabayugan is termed, basakan (of Cebuano origin). Unless stated otherwise, however, paddy rice farming in this paper will refer primarily to lowland irrigated wet rice cultivation.

  4. Conelly (1992) fails to account for social and cultural factors that may have affected the varied adoption of paddy rice amongst indigenous people and migrant settlers in the Napsa’an area of Palawan Island.

  5. Data for this paper were derived from qualitative and quantitative methods spanning 2001–2008. Methods included key informant and oral history interviews, participatory wealth rankings, and livelihood surveys. From 2001 to 2004, the lead author completed 80 interviews, a participatory wealth ranking (N = 156), and a livelihood questionnaire (N = 157, a non-random, purposive sample of all households in Cabayugan proper). All questions were geared toward ascertaining the extent to which each group’s involvement in swidden and paddy rice production had changed relative to household livelihood portfolios, socio-political relations, and the influences of agrarian change. From 2006–2008, again using purposive sampling, he completed 40 in-depth interviews and a smaller livelihood questionnaire (n = 20) in Cabayugan among long-time swiddeners. The questions in both surveys were designed to understand the relative social, cultural, and economic importance of each form of rice production; how and why swidden size and yield had changed over time; and the main motives behind the shift from subsistence harvesting to commercial production across Cabayugan proper, and Buenavista. Both the wealth ranking and questionnaires covered the entire population of three sitios that make up Cabayugan proper (Cabayugan Centro, Sugod Uno, and Manturon), with select interviews being completed in Buenavista. Tagbanua in Buenavista and Cabayugan granted their Free and Prior Informant Consent for all components of this study. Pseudonyms have been used in this paper.

  6. Swidden is often referred to by the pejorative Tagalog term, kaingin.

  7. The use of Ancestral Domain Claim refers to a legal land claim with dimensions that are zoned and registered at the Bureau of Lands in Manila. The condition of harvesting in a “traditional” and “sustainable” manner has been enshrined within Ancestral Domain Management Plans as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997.

  8. The PCSD is a unique government body formed by Republic Act No. 7611 with a mandate for the protection of the environment within the province. Indigenous interests are very poorly represented within the council whose decisions clearly express the views of the authorities.

  9. These include almaciga resin (Agathis philippensis; alba); wild pig (Sus barbatus), various types and grades of rattan (mainly Calamus caesius); honey; bird eggs and swiflet nests; and orchids (Conelly 1985).

  10. Tagbanua have traded forest products for commodities with Chinese and Muslim merchants for several centuries (Kress 1977).

  11. Aborlan lies in south-central Palawan, and is considered the cultural cradle of Tagbanua society (Fox 1982).

  12. Although state programs such as Masagana 99 facilitates mass enrolment in paddy farming with significant increases in yield, the overall benefits of such programs were not equitably, and so failed to improve income levels for the majority of landless tenants in the Philippines (Kerkvliet 1974).

  13. Respondents could choose multiple answers to one question.

  14. The same can be said of fourth-generation Tagbanua surveyed (born between 1940 and 1950) who confirmed that they stayed put because of marriage, forest-based livelihoods, and a lack of other opportunities (Livelihood questionnaire, summer 2002).

  15. The lead author investigated how relative levels of household asset holdings might affect livelihood portfolios, paddy rice and swidden cultivation, and overall social and economic differences within and between migrants and Tagbanua. To understand why some households were "rich" and others "poor, migrant and Tagbanua farmers helped define criteria for a wealth-ranking based on the relative ownership value of assets (relative to a particular asset’s productive capacity and return on investment). Relative household wealth was ranked by participants according to the type, number, and value of different assets owned by households in each social group. As participants knew what other households owned enabled them to define and rank the relative value of assets according to wealth categories they had pre-assigned. Participants then aggregated different levels of asset holdings into an emic (participant generated) index of relative household wealth, ranging from "wealthy" (i.e., mayaman), "moderately wealthy," "poor," and "very poor" (i.e., mas hirapan). Percentage of asset ownership per ranking index is based on the level of household ownership of asset type in each respective wealth ranking for the entire population of the sitios. The population estimates of the three sitios surveyed changed marginally in 2004 (N = 156; Tagbanua n = 50; migrants n = 106).

  16. Key informant interview, Juanito Capistrano, Sugod Uno, December 13, 2006.

  17. Key informant interview, Raul Daganta, Sugod Uno, December 12, 2006.

  18. Key informant interview, Nilo Dagome, Bentoan, December 10, 2006.

  19. Key informant interview, Frances Dagas, Sitio Buenavisa, December 19, 2007.

  20. Key informant interview, Raul Francisco, Martape, January 6, 2008.

  21. Key Informant Interview, Adolfo Yara, Sugod Uno, January 6, 2008.

  22. Key Informant Interview, Antonio Salvador, Sugod Uno, January 7, 2008.

  23. Key Informant Interview, Alberto Rodriguez, Sugod Uno, January 7, 2008.

  24. Key Informant Interview, Matuar Nolito, Sugod Uno, January 8, 2008.

  25. Key Informant Interview, Jose Rodriguez, Sugod Uno, January 8, 2008.

  26. Key Informant Interview, Manong Avecito, Sugod Uno/Kayasan, January 8, 2008.

  27. Key informant interview, Vicente Calderon, Centro Buenavista, January 20, 2007.

  28. Key informant interview, Pedro Aguilar, Sitio Madahon, December 15, 2006.

  29. Key informant interview, Renato Mariposa, Centro, Buenavista, December 20, 2006.

  30. Key informant interview, Rogelio Baldera, Sugod Uno, Cabayugan, January 6, 2008.

  31. Key informant interview, Pepito Banal, Sugod Uno, Cabayugan, December 21, 2007.

  32. Key informant interview, Dagumboy Bacod, Sugod Uno/Martape, January 6, 2008.

  33. Key informant interview, Tatay Pabio Franco, June 2004, Sugod Uno, Barangay Cabayugan.

  34. The availability of a variety of root crops inside swiddens as core sustenance for poor farmers is well established (Eder 1978; Novellino 1999; Dressler, 2005). Eder (1978) and Novellino (1999) have also documented how korot is harvested when other sources of food are in decline. Korot is a wild tuber that contains a poisonous alkaloid called dioscoreine. In order to be eaten, the tuber must be peeled and cut into small pieces and soaked to extract the alkaloid (Eder 1978).

  35. See Dressler (2005) for a more comprehensive list of species grown inside and adjacent to swiddens.

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Acknowledgments

This research was made possible by the Wenner-Gren International Collaborative Research Grant and ECR Grant from the University of Queensland.

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  1. School of Social Science, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Wolfram Dressler

  2. Department of Social Forestry and Forest Governance, University of the Philippines Los Banos, 4031, College, Laguna, the Philippines

    Juan Pulhin

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Correspondence to Wolfram Dressler.

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Dressler, W., Pulhin, J. The shifting ground of swidden agriculture on Palawan Island, the Philippines. Agric Hum Values 27, 445–459 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-009-9239-0

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