QUEZON CITY (PIA) -- The implementation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) is part of the 5-point agenda that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. presented during the 1st National Soil Health Summit.
These soil and water management priority agenda were created to avert future crises, enhance the country’s soil health, and promote sustainability that could benefit future generations. It is also designed to address land degradation and mitigate the effects of drought in the Philippines.
The SLM was crafted to address the pressing issue of land degradation in the Philippines. Some of the indicators that soil is experiencing land degradation are loss of productive topsoil through water erosion; loss of soil fertility due to over-cultivation; loss of vegetation covers due to illegal logging and widespread forest tree cutting; and expansion of slash and bum agriculture in critical slopes.
Water logging due to poor drainage and water management, soil salinization due to over-harvesting of groundwater near coastal areas, and soil pollution are also causing this natural contamination.
In order to achieve the goals, the project follows a participatory cross-sectoral approach involving all the key stakeholders in project design and implementation. The promotion of SLM measures and technologies for the adoption of vulnerable fanning communities will be the focus of the field investments of the project. Through the establishment of SLM demonstration sites, farmers will be able to learn and adopt various methods of soil conservation farming and water resource conservation that will improve their crop production and income.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) together with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Interior and Local Development (DILG), and the then Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) were tasked to look into the implementation of policies and programs under the SLM and guide local government units (LGUs) that are vulnerable to land degradation.
SLM was developed by the agriculture department as a way to achieve other sectoral goals across the regions down to the smallest communities in the country by enhancing their crop productivity and improving farmers’ income.
As a reinforcement, President Marcos commits to “empower the Bureau of Soil and Water Management to achieve these goals, especially through capacitating soil laboratories across the country to yield better data”.
He also instructs the Department of Agriculture (DA) to work with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), among other agencies, to ensure the successful implementation of the said agenda.
