A COST-BENEFIT-ANALYSIS OF HEDGEROW INTERCROPPING IN THE PHILIPPINE UPLANDS USING THE SCUAF MODEL

Soil erosion in the Philippine uplands is severe. Hedgerow intercroppi ng is widely advocated as an effective means of controlling soil erosi on from annual cropping systems in the uplands. However, few farmers a dopt hedgerow intercropping even in areas where it has been vigorously promoted. This may be because farmers find hedgerow intercropping to be uneconomic compared to traditional methods of farming. This paper r eports a cost-benefit analysis comparing the economic returns from tra ditional maize farming with those from hedgerow intercropping in an up land community with no past adoption of hedgerows. A simple erosion/pr oductivity model, Soil Changes Under Agroforestry (SCUAF), is used to predict maize yields over 25 years. Economic data were collected throu gh key informant surveys with experienced maize farmers in an upland c ommunity. Traditional methods of open-field farming of maize are econo mically attractive to farmers in the Philippine uplands. In the short term, establishment costs are a major disincentive to the adoption of hedgerow intercropping. In the long term, higher economic returns from hedgerow intercropping compared to open-field farming are realised, b ut these lie beyond farmers' limited planning horizons.