Urban markets and rural resource productivity: Incentives for soil conservation among upland farmers in the Philippines

Although development theory suggests that economic integration of urban and rural areas is a desirable means of achieving growth and equity, integration may create incentives for less sustainable forms of land use and subsequent land degradation. I examine the effect of rural-urban integration on farmers' soil conservation practices for the case of upland peasant households in the vicinity of Dumaguete City, the Philippines.; Drawing from theory on the political economy of natural resources and the factors affecting the adoption of soil conservation, I hypothesize that market integration directly influences farmers' land use objectives and capacities by affecting households' access to and allocation of production inputs; access to information and technology; access to alternative, nonfarm income sources; capacity to retain and accumulate surplus; and the security of their claims to land and labor. I examine the history of the Dumaguete region, the current conditions affecting farmers' production opportunities, and the range of conservation practices used by upland farmers. I then employ discriminant analysis to test the specific effects of market integration. The data for the study were collected through a formal survey of 198 households, as well as through key respondent interviews and participant observation. The survey included structured interviews, fields visits, and soil sampling for each household.; Findings suggest that market integration affects farmers' soil conservation practices primarily through shifts in access and allocation of production inputs and in their capacity to retain and accumulate surplus. I found that (1) integration affects how people conserve their soil more than it affects whether conservation occurs at all; (2) the effects of integration vary by households' social and economic status, as well as by land use and site characteristics; (3) the relationship among household economic status, land characteristics and market integration appears to be mutually reinforcing, indicating a likely trend toward increasing differentiation in household welfare and conservation strategies; and (4) integrating across scales of analysis, e.g. looking simultaneously at interactions among soil, land use, household condition, the regional economy, and national policies, resolves disparities between approaches relying on primarily on only micro- or macro-level explanations of resource conservation. In the Dumaguete area, integration is specifically associated with increasing use of commercial fertilizers and decreasing use of organic inputs on corn fields, and increasing use of organic inputs on homegardens. The short-term effects of fertilizers may lead to unsustainable soil productivity and consequent unstable systems of resource management. The scarcity of fertile soil for most farmers, particularly in densely populated tropical countries, suggests that policy makers need to consider these impacts of increased rural-urban integration on resource conservation to ensure sustainable rural development.