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Narrative Report On SWCM

The farm practices various soil and water conservation methods to prevent erosion due to its mountainous location. These include SALT 1, with hedgerows of leguminous trees and shrubs to slow water flow and trap particles. Contour canals divert water away from crops, while check dams slow water velocity and trap soil. Multistory cropping with different height plants further slows water impact. Balabag and bench terracing systems also help conserve soil and water. With these measures, erosion is reduced and soil quality remains suitable for year-round crop production. However, some structures like rock walls require improved maintenance to maximize benefits.

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Raymond Oh
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414 views

Narrative Report On SWCM

The farm practices various soil and water conservation methods to prevent erosion due to its mountainous location. These include SALT 1, with hedgerows of leguminous trees and shrubs to slow water flow and trap particles. Contour canals divert water away from crops, while check dams slow water velocity and trap soil. Multistory cropping with different height plants further slows water impact. Balabag and bench terracing systems also help conserve soil and water. With these measures, erosion is reduced and soil quality remains suitable for year-round crop production. However, some structures like rock walls require improved maintenance to maximize benefits.

Uploaded by

Raymond Oh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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NARRATIVE REPORT

SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT

Last February 24, 2020 our class visited the upland farm at the UPLB Learning Laboratory
of Agroforestry. The farm is situated in the mountainous part of the campus and because of the
given conditions it is important for the farm to practice soil and water conservation because it is
more susceptible to soil erosion. But other than that the farm is in good condition for crop
production because it is situated in an undisturbed area. There is less possibility for the plants to
be damaged by the people and animals roaming around.

In terms of erosion, there are not that much indication in the said farm. Maybe the erosion
is just natural but because of the soil and water conservation and management measures
practiced the erosion was lesser and it was prevented. Because of that the general condition of
the top soil is still good for farming and we have seen some crops planted also which grew just
fine and healthy. The availability of water is crucial to crop production because water is one of the
essential raw materials for the plants to make food and for their survival. With the condition of the
farm and the given tropical climate in the Philippines, it is possible to do an all year round cropping
in the said upland farm. They have enough soil and water conservation methods and
knowledgeable caretakers to choose what crop is suitable for a certain SWCM method and for
the climate and weather condition in the place.

There are soil and water conservation measures applied in the upland farm. We have
seen SALT 1 (Sloping Agricultural Land Technology). The said vegetative SCWM have
hedgerows where leguminous trees and shrubs are planted which prevents soil erosion and traps
the soil particles during rainy days, it also helps to slow the velocity of the water causing less
damage to the agricultural crops planted in the alley in between the rows. I think I also have seen
SALT 2 (Simple Agro-livestock Land Technology) practiced in the farm because I have seen a
pen for pigs there. The difference with SALT 1 and SALT 2 is just that, in SALT 2, there are animal
components involved. For the structural they have contour and diversion canals that diverts the
direction of the water away from the part where the crops are planted. They also have check dams
that traps the soil particles and at the same time slows down the velocity of the water. They also
have soil pit in where the soil particles that are not trapped by the check dams is accumulated
and after the soil pit is full already the accumulated soil particles is then brought again to the alleys
or the parts where they should be. They practice multi-storey cropping in which it is good for
utilizing a certain area of land. The plant big trees such as mahogany, then cacao a shorter tree
then they plant shade loving plants at the bottom. We can say that the space is really utilized. And
it also a good practice to avoid soil erosion because the levels of the crops planted slows down
the velocity of the rain, from the tall trees, to the shorter ones and lastly the shade loving plants.
The water won’t have a direct impact and damage to the soil. Multistorey cropping is also
beneficial because the fallen leaves from the plants will serve as the natural fertilizer. They also
practice balabag system in which it separates two parts of the agricultural land and as said by our
guide it is a time indicator that tells the farmers when to transfer to the other side. This way the
other side of the agricultural land can rest and replenish its resources because it is planted with
leguminous trees such as ipil ipil which then after some time will be made as balabag when the
other one has already decomposed. They also have rock walls which is also a way to prevent soil
erosion but in the case of the farm the rock walls were not maintained because the height of the
walls are supposed to be at the level of our knees but the eroded soil accumulated and is already
at the level of the rock walls. In the vegineering part of the SWCM they practice bench terracing,
it is the leveling and removal of soils to produce series of steps or terraces in where they can plant
the crops. Though there is a disadvantage in this practice because of the leveling of soil the
removal of topsoil is done so the nutrients of the terraces are lesser. All the practices are effective
as we can observe in the quality of crops and the soil particles accumulated in the hedgerows,
the traces of erosion also are not evident that much because of the said practices. They just need
to work more on the maintenance of the practices so that they can maximize the benefit they can
get from it.

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