HARMONIZING TOURISM AND AGRICULTURE

HARMONIZING TOURISM AND AGRICULTURE

Virgilio T. Villancio

You just came to Baguio, last Friday evening and you have the taste of the city at night. You went around the city early Saturday- PMA, Mines View Park, Camp John Hay, Wright Park, etc and you have the best time when you watched the flower festival. Despite the elbow to elbow situation, you enjoy the float and the colorful sight. Last Sunday, I saw you picking strawberries at La Trinidad, Benguet then you are picking roses at Bahong at 10:00. You are talking with the Manager of the Flower Producer cooperative just after visiting their Chrysanthemum farm below the slopes. Well, that is a smaller version of the things that you have seen at King Louie Flower Farm. Oh, at least, now you know that you need not be as sophisticated as the King Louie Farm. The story of that Lady coop manager can tell you that you can start small and make business. As you are going back to Baguio City, you stopped by a cabbage farm and start to wonder how the cabbage head is formed. You were informed by the farmer that if you want to buy cheaper vegetable, be sure to be at the La Trinidad Trading post early in the morning the next day before you go back to Los Banos. You stopped by at the Benguet State University to buy peanut brittle, strawberry jam, ube, and other products. At the end of the day you have a lot of everything in your van from potatoes to carrots not only for yourself but for your friends, neighbors and most especially for your mother-in-law. Are you satisfied? I bet you are looking forward of coming back for the next year Panagbenga Festival. Maybe you will try Atok and Buguias. Meantime, it is time to work back home.

Last year, you were at the world famous Banaue Rice Terraces. Have you ever wondered how those rice fields were carved out in the mountains? Have you ever imagined how the farmers were going up and down the slope in their search for livelihood as they prepare the land, plant rice, irrigate the fields, harvest, and process the rice into something that they could eat and into wine that they could drink? Do you know the rituals associated into each of those activities or the importance of rice wine in the culture of the highlands? This information you will not know if you are just an ordinary tourist who just make use of your faculty of sight to appreciate things and leisure to enjoy. A present day tourist go to places not just to visit but to learn, not just to eat but to savor, not just to experience but to be educated, not to be a stranger but to belong. My experience told me, tourism and agriculture can do exist in harmony.

TOURISM AS EXPERIENCED

My first impression about what tourism refers to is “travelling for pleasure, going to places, an outing for more than a day, getting away from work”. My personal experience as a local tourist is getting away for a week with my family. However, we are not the usual tourists who goes to places for pleasure but to experience what are beyond our home and our community. I toured around the Philippines as a development worker with my work at the Department of Agriculture and at UPLB. I traveled into several corners and pockets of the country and these experiences I want to share with my family.

The first time we went into was a week trip to Baguio City in 1997. A middle income earner with ample savings for a four-day trip, we rented a van and brought with us a part of our home- ie. kitchen and the bedroom- and made the places we visited as our living room. We have been to Manila for some shopping thus the kids were not that excited but rather sleeping when we traversed EDSA. They woke up when we passed by the longest bridge connecting Bulacan and Pampanga- the viaduct. I have some little information about the area and talk to them about the Candaba swamp and how it is planted to rice during the rainy season or get flooded when the typhoon comes. During the dry season, you can see rice and water melons. We have our breakfast at Pulilan, just after getting out of the North Expressway. We parked by the roadside and took out our packed meals. I could just tell them about the “knelling carabao”.

We intentionally by-passed Clark Air Base because that will be our itinerary when we are going back home. The sight of Lahar before the Bamban Bridge was enough to show them what is Lahar and the damage it has done to people and property. We stopped for a merienda at the Capas Shrine. I told them about the Death March and my kids contributed what they learned in their Sibika class. I just have to tell them we are passing by Hacienda Luisita. How I wish I could bring them to see the Sugar Central, where they could see how sugar are planted, harvested, milled, refined, and bagged. Well, I may also have to tell them about the fate of the sacadas.

We met a little traffic at Carmen Rosales, Pangasinan and a peddler offered “tupig” and I bought a bunch for my kids to taste. As we go along to Pangasinan, we passed by a feed mill in Villasis. What are inside the feed mill but dusts. But are we interested on how it works? Well, we did not go inside but I have to tell my family how it is in Pangasinan during summer. You can see corn, tobacco, mungbean, tomato and eggplant in the fields. On the roadside, shops are selling Bagoong, garlic, onions, mangoes, and Singkamas where travelers from Baguio stop and buy. We again stopped by the roadside in Sison, Pangasinan and look for a shade under a Mango tree to take our lunch. We have Chicken Adobo and fried Tilapia in our stocks. We really have fun sitting in a mat at a picnic mood while savoring the taste of my wife cookings.

After lunch, we traversed the way to Marcos Highway, saw the Marcos Bust, stopped by the view deck, and reached La Trinidad, Benguet before sundown. We stayed at the UPLB Guest House near Benguet State University. The next day, we have just done what you have experienced. On the way home, we passed by the Duty Free Shop at Clark.
Since then, we set aside a one week per year vacation to go around. We went to Cebu in 1997 and able to go to Bohol and Leyte but failed to have a trip to Dumaguete. In 1998, we planned to go to Davao-GenSan route but settled for Quezon Pahiyas instead and went for Banaue-sagada in 1999. In 2000, we did not go to other places but settled for a thanksgiving treat for our families and friends in a Private resort in Calamba, Laguna. My family and friends went to Puerto Galera in 2001.

Last year, was a dip at del Prado Resort in Sariaya, Quezon where you could taste the sea, watch the coral beds, enjoy the freshwater swimming pool and the countryside. This is where I appreciated the effort by the local government to pave the road leading to barangay Guisguis.

There are more destinations I want you and my family to visit. We can have the Palawan destination. One week trip to Northern Palawan is enough but you have to go back for another week to enjoy the southern part. The Bicol route is another week. Have you been to Camiguin? Include it as itinerary when you travel to Northern Mindanao. The Davao-GenSan corridor is another exciting package. You can hike Mt. Apo or Mt. Matutum. I have not been to Lake Zebu but my friends always want to go back there. Of course, we should not forget the historical Ilocandia destination. This year we are planning for a Panay-Boracay trip. Maybe we could go to zamboanga Peninsula in 2010 when the condition there settles down.

AGRICULTURE IS THERE

I recognized that I had been an agrotourist all the way as I traveled from one place to another. My agriculture background and my work made me so. I also became an agrotourist guide to my family as we go along our travels. My training also prepared me to be inquisitive and start asking people about what they are doing, how are they doing it and why they are doing it. Every trip we made is education, a learning experience.

The strawberry fields, rice terraces, flower farms, vegetable gardens, rice fields, fruit orchards, green houses, agroforests, pineapple plantations, rubber trees, oil palms, and many more are agriculture. They are quite an experience to those who have just heard and read about it. I could just tell you how happy are my kids when they picked strawberry fruits in La Trinidad and the sight of an apple tree with small fruits at the experiment station of the Bureau of Plant Industry in Guisad. My son was surprised that you do not need to put a pot on cabbage to produce heads. My daughter is excited posing for pictures in a garden of roses in Bahong.

In most instances, however, the agriculture of it is set aside in favor of tourism. I remembered when we went to Puerto Galera and we visited the local market. My wife asked the market vendor as to where do they buy the eggplants, rice and other things they sell. She was quite surprised that almost all of what they were selling in the market was from Batangas City. The woman said that most of the people in Puerto Galera are busy in the tourism services that they are no longer interested in agriculture. Is this also happening in Banaue, Benguet, Bohol, Cebu or anywhere else that tourism industry dominate?

You go to Banaue because of the rice terraces. However, there were limited information about it. Our trip to Banaue as a family tourist was without the benefit of a tour guide nor tourism package. However, we got some information about Banaue and the terraces in one restaurant where we took our dinner. How I hope that those information can be made available in every view deck or entrances to the rice terraces destinations like Hapao. Will you not be amazed how they made the rice terraces and the intricate irrigation system that assured the whole year round of water to the fields? Have you been told that the forest-agriculture combination made it happened? Saving the rice terraces is one concern. Have you read in the paper about the large worms damaging the terraces? A national commission was created to take charge of rehabilitation of the terraces. Will you not chip-in your ten peso bill for saving the rice terraces?

It is not just the agriculture of it. The agriculture we would be referring to should be the appropriate one. How would you appreciate it if you see cabbage being sprayed with insecticide and fungicide every three days? Or you see, tomatoes being waxed with kerosene, or Ampalaya being dipped into a bucket of chemicals? When you go to Old kano’s Farm in Cavite or the Carandang’s Farm in Tanauan, Batangas, you will appreciate that organic farming without chemicals are possible. Try the Urban gardening showcase at Central Luzon State University (CLSU) and you will find good possibilities in your backyard.

Have you been told that hotdogs got earthworm in it? I do not know if it is true but one thing sure is that earthworms are used to compost farm by-products. You could just imagine how the ladies got tickled when the farmer took a bunch of earthworm in a box where he is having his vermicomposting. Silk is expensive. Have you seen those who have made it? They are silkworms. It is another tickling experience putting those worms one by one in the rack where they are feed mulberry leaves, sleep and weave cocoon producing silk.

Do not be surprise that a lot of the young today does not know or not recognize a rice plant so much so that they do not know how the food that they eat came to their tables. I participated in a one-week rice production training at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in 1982 as a part of a group of agricultural economist being prepared for a farming systems project. I can only just smile how my co-participants tip-toed in going down to the paddy fields and dipped their candle-like fingers into the mud while planting rice. It maybe be a sweating experience not just because of the hot sun but the idea that there might be leeches hanging on your feet the next time you get it up. They enjoyed it anyway. And the experience is told whenever we met each other as to who got soak into the mud, who got four leeches in its feet, who screams louder and so on. If you have a group in Makati who would like to experience planting rice, dehusking coconut, picking lanzones fruits, riding in a carabao, milking a goat, etc., maybe we can organize an agricamp for them.

In going home, do not forget to buy Buko Pie. We have the best in town not just the Original Buko Pie but Letty’s, Shella’s and Collette’s buko pie and its other pie variations are recommended. When you go to Davao, I am sure you will not forget buying Durian and Mangosteen either as fresh fruits or candies. The airlines made available provision for you to check-in fresh Durian fruits from Davao. Of course, do not forget a crate of Davao Pomelo and King Mandarins. You will not bring with you bananas, since these are widely available at reasonable price. In GenSan, they already have frozen tuna for you to take home. In Cagayan de Oro City, right at the airport you can pick up roasted cashew produced from the nearby Barangay Lumbia. Guitar and boneless danggit from Cebu; peanut kisses from Bohol; Pili nuts from Albay; Tikoy from Lucban, Quezon; Moron and Binagol from Dagami, Leyte; sabutan hats from Aurora; Carabao milk pastillas from Bulacan; handicrafts from Benguet and Paete; and many more. Whenever you go to those places, it is but necessary to bring them as pasalubong. Anywhere the Filipinos would be, they can not go home without them.

The joy is not just on having it. You will have more excitement when you visit the farms that produces it, the processing plants, the wood carvers and the weavers, not because you can buy the commodity cheaper but the fact that you have seen and sometimes experienced how those were made or produced. New learnings and experiences that you gained made it more meaningful.

LEARNING THE BASICS

Reil G. Cruz in his paper cited Ryan (2002), which described sustainable tourism as a “model form of economic development that can improve the quality of life of the host community, provide a high quality of experience to visitors, and maintains the quality of the environment on which both the host community and visitors depend”. He also cited a WTO definition of sustainable tourism development as development that leads to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled, while maintaining the cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems.

Based on my personal experiences and learnings from the theory and practice of ecotourism (Cruz, undated; Libosada, undated; and other authors), sustainable agrotourism should be consistent with the overall sustainable development policy framework and institutional mechanism with the following elements:

• Systems oriented as it involves not only the tourist destinations but the whole community as well. Agrotourism stakeholders are not only the tourist but the service providers as well. In here, historical destinations, parks, beaches, processing plants, integrated farms and other amenities became part of the overall design. Each of them added value to the package. Negative impacts caused by any of them reduced the desirability of the whole.

When we visited Del Prado Resort in Sariaya, Quezon last year, how I wish there will also be some agroforest destinations under the half-century old coconut trees where tourist could enjoy the taste of Buko Juice, fruits, and other products from Quezon. Maybe a mangrove with elevated pathway will also showcase the importance of mangrove in marine ecosystem with mangrove species properly labeled. Can the government with the resort owners have a joint venture on this and add value to the tourism package of the place?

• Natural resources management and stewardship is an element that seeks to conserve natural resources, enhance environmental quality, promote and protect biodiversity. Agriculture should be able to promote soil and water conservation in order not to result to soil and water quality deterioration. Increase in soil erosion results to sedimentation of rivers and waterways. The use of high dosage of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture are contributors of water pollution. A new form of stewardship among stakeholders is therefore necessary.

A report cited the contribution of the wood carving industry in deforesting the Muyong (forest) component of the watershed in the rice terraces systems. The increasing demand for wood crafts as a result of the growth in tourism would increase demands for wood among wood carvers. While before, there are specific species for wood carving, the increase demand result to use of any wood species in the forest thus resulting to deforestation. Since banning wood carving will be synonymous to killing a livelihood, expertise or a part of culture, strategy should be developed to allow the wood carvers themselves or they pay agroforesters to grow trees that they will be carving. Market mechanism can also be used to see to it that wood carving industries are kept alive without jeopardizing natural resources sustainability.

Conservation of endangered species of flora and fauna can also be promoted through ecotourism. Botanical gardens, zoo, arboretum, bambusetum, and the like are ways to conserve those species. Medicinal gardens, fruit orchard, multi-storey agroforest, or even homelot garden can be designed to promote conservation and biodiversity.

• Partnership among various stakeholders. There are several tourism projects cited to have promoted partnership among various stakeholders. Among the examples are the Mt. Pinatubo Ecotours in Zambales, Donsol Whaleshark Interaction Tours in Sorsogon, and Cambuhat River Tours in Bohol. In these cases, the community with the local and national government, academic institutions, private sectors, civil society and the religious are involved in various ways. They could be involved directly as service providers or as members of local tourism councils.

Even the travelers are partners themselves. They also want to participate and be involved in something. They could be requested to plant their trees or contribute something to maintain it in exchange for trees named after them. They could catch fish and pay for it. The adventure of fishing is great. In the same manner, the children could climb guava trees and pay for the fruits that they gathered rather than just buying it from the basket.

• Accountable and responsible particularly in providing and accessing the necessary services as claimed. Product labeling should be honestly provided. Organically produced vegetables are properly identified and if possible accreditation should be imposed. Unnecessary competition should be avoided while standardized quality services should be aspired for. In tourism, one enterprise can not do it alone. The more diverse services that are provided by several service providers in a particular destination will be more desirable to provide the public with range of options. However, each providers and tourist should be responsible enough that the agrotourism objectives, elements and principles– eg. ecological balance, environmental protection, conservation and promotion of biodiversity, human development, respect for human and nature dignity, respect and promotion of culture, among others – are subscribed. Rules of access and provision of services should be clearly communicated to the public so that they will know their responsibilities and accountabilities.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Tourism (DOT) are implementing laws and regulations related to promotion of sustainable tourism. Monitoring and evaluation of compliance is necessary. Service provider who does not follow the regulation shall be penalized while those who follow should be rewarded.

• Educational for the public so that they need not necessarily join tour packages in order to avail of the other tourism services. Brochures, signs, and other information and communication materials about particular destination such as park, water falls, farms, and other sites are of great help. Making these information available add value to the tourism destination. The information can make enough leeway for them to be more adventurous but not to violate certain rules. This is a responsibility not only of the national and local tourism office but also among tourist operators and members of the community. The objective is for the public to be well-informed and learn something from the experience. Well-informed and well-served tourists are the best public relation officers to promote tourism destinations.

• Limits and boundaries should be clearly delineated. The capacity of a particular destination is limited by its carrying capacity. Nature park for example, should limit access to some extent that resources will not be exploited particularly by prospectors and vandals. There will be zones for farms, eating, lodging, recreation and other services. Environmental standards for structures that will be built particularly in beaches, natural sites, historical landmarks and other critical areas are also to be specified. In the case of agrotourism, land use is also dependent on the suitability and capability of the resource to be productive without sacrificing its sustainability. As one report mentioned it “don’t overuse, don’t overrun”.

• Less disruptive. Tourism can also be disruptive to the host communities. As more people flux to the community, their activities will be affected. The demand for food will drive the price higher. In some instances, the people are driven out of their communities to accommodate tourism development. Speculators who have the resources can buy them out.

Another form of disruption is in terms of the ecology itself. If more people are visiting flower gardens, bird farms, and the like, there will more exposure to possible contamination. In the case of a natural forest, stress caused by the presence of a visitor as they walk through the trails does not only translate to soil compaction but into the flora and fauna that are under it. Concrete trails may be provided but make sure that it will protect rather that exacerbate the stress provided into the system.

• Integrated in the sense that the necessary services for tourist are properly provided for. The destination has available lodging houses, food services, recreation, education, business, even internet, services, communication and other support services. In the case of nature destination, there may be camping provisions and evacuation option in case of untoward incidents.

• Equity which could be translated terms of distribution of benefits, access to resources, and intergenerational concern that the next generation should not be deprived of the amenities provided for by the tourism resources.

AGROFORESTRY: HARMONIZING AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND TOURISM

Agroforestry as a science and practice can contribute in harmonizing agriculture, forestry and tourism. As a land use system, agroforestry combines agricultural crops, woody perennials, animals and other enterprises in a parcel of land in a particular spatial and temporal arrangement. There are several systems identified depending on the combinations of those component enterprises. As a system, agroforestry provides productive, economic, environmental and aesthetic services, which are generally compatible with tourism. Although it can not approximate a natural forest, agroforestry can also provide, to some extent the basic environmental services that forest can do – ie. Timber and other products, watershed services, soil and water conservation, and to limited extent agrobiodiversity. Despite these services, there were limited promotion and utilization of agroforestry as a system thus I have been looking for a strategy to make people aware of the good things of agroforestry and erase the misconception that going agroforestry is expensive.

I have those visions come into senses when Ka Ely of Pooc II, Silang, Cavite approached me about developing an agroforestry tourism project in their village. What I could remember is the noble objective of preserving the agroforestry systems that they have been practicing for generations. He is worried about the on-going urbanization and the pressure it exerts in the use of the land. Their neighboring communities are already being converted to subdivisions and factories. The offer of immediate capital gains is enormous as the land values are rising. They are determined to preserve their agroforestry systems and this is where agriculture, forestry, and tourism may need to be harmonized.

I have been to the village with the prodding of Dr. alelli Luna of the Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau of DENR. She told me about the system and got my interest on it. They documented the agroforestry system and labeled as 1:4 agroforestry system. I went around the village and see their systems. I could see the whole 50 years of agroforestry transformation in that village. I can see coconut farms planted to corn and peanut, which is a characteristic of a newly-opened lands. This we could term as 1:3 system where you have three crops in a farm parcel. After the harvest of peanut but before the harvest of corn, coffee, pineapple and papaya are planted. Thus in the second year, the farm has 1:4 system composed of pineapple, papaya, and coffee. Papaya are harvested within the second year while pineapple started to be harvested during the first quarter of the third year. A well-kept coffee could be flowering by then and may have a good harvest in the fourth year. You can see a fifty year old coffee plantation in a 1:4 system. The old trees are cut for another cycle of the agroforestry system. These trees are sold as drift wood for orchids but I saw them in one of the resort used as poles for tables and walls for the cottages.

This system I am now promoting as Uno por Cuatro but the Barangay Chairman Virgilio Tibayan said his system can even be labeled as Uno por Otso. In his farm parcel, he has mahogany, pineapple, black pepper,ube, papaya, and vegetables particularly pole sitao, not to include the cattle, swine and chicken in his farmstead. He was awarded as 2002 Outstanding Farmer Practicing Conservation Farming by the Conservation Farming Movement, Inc.

These Agroforestry systems at various stages can be seen at Barangay Pooc, Silang, Cavite. The documentation made by ERDB and the subsequent interaction of the program collaborators to the Barangay Council explored the vision of establishing a Cavite Agroforestry village, which will showcase those agroforestry systems and inspire students, farmers, development workers and other interested individuals. The establishment of the Agroforestry Development Center will also provide a venue for research, extension and education to enhance and promote the existing Cavite Agroforestry System in other upland areas of the country with similar characteristics.

The productive, economic, environmental and tourism values of agroforestry will be explored. Cottages, dormitories, recreation facilities and other amenities will be provided with due consideration of the basic elements mentioned above. The Agroforestry Village will not only cater to small farmers but also to potential farmers and the general public who needs to be educated on the relationship of agroforestry and the environment. We would like the visitors to dream about their farms on what they would aspire for and see that these are actualized in a place like Pooc II, Silang, Cavite, an agroforestry village. Overall, this program will attempt to mobilize the support of various institutions and the public in enhancing and preserving the Agroforestry legacy of Cavite- where Agriculture, forestry and tourism will be in harmony.


REFERENCES

Cruz, R.G. undated. In Search of an Environmentally Sustainable Tourism in the Philippines.
Libosada, C.M.. Undated. The Value of Preparing Communities for the Impacts of Tourism.

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Paper presented for EcoForum 2003 – National Conference on the Promotion of Eco-Agro Tourism, Local Government Academy Training Center (LGTC), UP Los Banos, College, Laguna, February 25-28, 2003

Director, institute of Agroforestry, College of Forestry and Natural Resources and Manager, Land Grant Management Office (LGMO), UP Los Banos