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The performance of publicly funded canal irrigation systems or more commonly called national irrigation systems (NIS) in the Philippines remained below expectations despite considerable system rehabilitation and improvement efforts. The continued suboptimal performances were attributed to technical, managerial, institutional and policy issues and constraints, and in recent years, to climate change. Irrigation modernisation is recognized as strategic option to improve the irrigation system performance. It is defined as a process of technical, management and institutional transformation to improve irrigation services to farmers. The main objective of the research study was to formulate a strategy for developing a modernisation plan for national irrigation systems in the Philippines. The research methodology was framed with deliberately selected assessment and characterization procedures, which were adoptively modified and integrated to critically analyse the state of coherence among the three fundamentals of irrigation system water delivery: design, operation and water supply; and to identify solutions for any inconsistency. It included, among others an analysis of the process, nature and impacts of rehabilitation projects; diagnostic assessment of the irrigation systems; revalidation of design assumptions on water balance parameters; characterization of irrigation management, service and demands; and identification of options for improvements. The developed methodology for examining the different aspects of planning and operations of NIS with an end view of modernising the systems provides a more comprehensive and applicable methodology for drawing up of a more relevant plan for NIS modernisation. The knowledge gained on case study systems provides a sound basis for planning of appropriate modernisation solutions for the case study systems and in cases of ungauged, small-scale NIS. The methodology developed in this study could serve as a blueprint for modernisation program for NIS.

De LNV-raad namens Nederland voor de Filippijnen is drs. Adriede Roo. Nog niet zo lang geleden overlegde hij met de minister van landbouw van de Filippijnen over mogelijkheden om op de eilanden aardappelen te telen die geschikt zijn voor verwerking.Dit om deviezen te sparen en om lokaal meerwaarde aan de aardappelketen te geven. Ook is gesproken over een mogelijke rol voor het Nederlandse bedrijfsleven in dit voorstel. Aan onderzoekers van Wageningen UR, Anton Haverkort en Romke Wustman, is gevraagd om de haalbaarheid hiervan uit te zoeken.

Displacement of poor families contribute to the worsening of their poverty situation yet involuntary resettlement still takes place. According to the latest Report of the Indonesian Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction, more than 12,000 people were reportedly evicted in August 2008 to give way to the “green space” land reclamation projects (COHRE 2008). In the Philippines, 59,462 households were relocated in the period 2001 – 2006 (HUDCC 2008) because of various infrastructure projects. Though more recent data are lacking, there is no evidence that the pace of displacement is slowing down. The Impoverishment, Risks and Reconstruction (IRR) model of Cernea (2000) identifies nine interlinked potential risks inherent to displacement: landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, marginalization, food insecurity, increased morbidity and mortality, loss of access to common property, social disarticulation and educational loss. Out of the nine risks, social disarticulation or the loss of social capital in a resettlement site is the most complicated, because different factors are involved and because of its impact on vulnerability to the other risks. Social capital building or transplanting in an entirely different or new environment such as resettlement sites has remained an elusive topic in the research arena. This study tries to fill the void by addressing the following research problem: How does social capital grow across time in an involuntary resettlement setting and what is the role of the context and its elements in shaping this growth? The study used a comparative approach and a longitudinal perspective. Applying a longitudinal perspective aimed at capturing the process of social capital building through time. It entailed a framework that wove the factors involved in the process – as hypothesised on the basis of social capital and resettlement theories – into a timeline that comprised four periods. These four periods included before resettlement, the first year in the site after resettlement, the following years in the site, and the year of the field study (2011 in the first study area and 2012 in the second). The influence of social capital development in each period on the following period was investigated. Using a comparative perspective, two resettlement communities in Southeast Asia were chosen for this study. The first study site was in the Philippines and concerned an urban resettlement community named ‘Kasiglahan Village 1’ (KV1), situated in Barangay San Jose, Rodriguez, Rizal Province. The second study site, a rural resettlement community named ‘Bantarpanjang Translok’ (BT), was in Indonesia and located in Bantarpanjang, Cimanggu, Cilacap in Central Java Province, Both are government-managed resettlement communities. Moreover, the resettled households in both countries had incomes that were below the minimum standard of living, and the ages of the communities were sufficiently similar – the Philippine site was 12 years old, and the Indonesian site was 11 years in existence at the time of fieldwork. The age of the resettlement site is crucial for the longitudinal perspective utilized for this research. Although comparable in important aspects, the two locations differ in terms of their cultural traditions, physical location, institutional context, national resettlement policies, religion, ethnicity, and demographic and socio-economic profile. This allowed for a contextual analysis on the way in which social capital evolves. Data for this study were gathered by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative methods, such as in-depth interviews, exploratory interviews, observation, focus group discussions and life histories, were blended with quantitative methods. The latter included a household survey that used a tailored calendar tool to enhance the validity and reliability of the retrospective data. Social network analysis was conducted as well. The results of the analysis of the state of the communities before involuntary resettlement and a year later conveyed the following. Overall, involuntary resettlement in both setting did not significantly harm the households’ structural and cognitive social capital. After a year, the households in both settings were able to create and somehow duplicate the levels of trust and reciprocity they had in their previous communities. Moreover, the data suggest that the civic engagement history of the households is only influential in social capital building within a new community when the households share cultural traditions and social practices that are regularly observed. In the absence of such cultural traditions social practices, it is institutional interventions that will stimulate social capital formation. When looking at social capital creation across time in the two locations, the forging of ties among the household grows every year. There are three perspectives that can explain such a process. These are represented by variables relating to (i) individual and household attributes, (ii) the institutional context, and (iii) social capital history. On developing weak and strong ties, both cases demonstrate growth spurts during the year when there was an influx of resettlers and basic services and public places had been put in place. Moreover, after a period of upsurge, social capital attains a level of steady growth. Social capital growth can be seen as intertwined with the stabilisation of the resettlement sites in terms of physical infrastructure and social services as well as the achievement of a sense of “getting settled”. The study provides rich insights on the effects of resettlement programs and social capital on whether households in an involuntary resettlement context ‘get by’ or manage to ‘get ahead’ and improve their situation. The outcomes differ according to resettlement policies, culture, location, and phase of resettlement (first year and last year). In addition, all forms of structural social capital turned out meaningful for getting by and getting ahead, although some types of ties would feature more prominently than others. In the Philippines case, the number of support ties played a prominent role in the economic and physical well-being of the households, while in the Indonesian case it is the number of close individuals and number of government ties that mattered most. Overall, ‘soft’ resettlement inputs were found indispensable in both locations for the households’ capacity to get by and get ahead. Government meetings and membership of civic organizations contributed positively to household food security (last year) and social well-being (both years) of the Philippine resettlers. For the Indonesians, these contributed to their household income (first year) and social well-being in both periods. Community organisation should therefore be an integral part of resettlement projects. Social network analysis was conducted on the networks of households in Indonesia and those of community leaders in the Philippines. In Indonesia and the Philippines, social network analysis revealed that after a certain period in a new community and living among other involuntarily resettled strangers, households eventually establish interconnections among them. Gender proved to be a factor not only in shaping social networks but also in reinforcing certain advantages of some of the features of the social networks in a resettlement site. Gender differences emerged in both settings, the female advantage in forming friendships being one of them. In both cases, women (housewives in Indonesia and leaders in the Philippines) have a bigger proportion of friends in their network than men, indicating that they are better at nurturing connections that develop into friendship. The analysis also shows how the emerging community as a whole can benefit from the friendship networks of women. The default assignment of authority to men in the community and the wives supporting this gender construction, can account for the male-dominated brokerage roles and men being the influential actors in the Indonesian site. Contrastingly, in the Philippine location women leaders monopolize the brokerage role and are influential actors. Compared to male leaders, Filipino women leaders in the community have better interpersonal skills, are more empowered and are more active in civic organisations and activities. They bring more projects and activities to their members and connect better to the authorities than their male counterparts. This study provides strong evidence on a number of issues. First, the mending of new social communities by social capital building takes place right after the resettlement and amidst a worsening poverty situation in the new location. Second, civic engagement history can only significantly enhance social capital building in a site when it is shared by almost the entire community. Third, social capital history can be created by the new inhabitants of a resettlement site even in a short period of time. And fourth, the results of applying the institutional perspective underscore the importance of the creation of policies and projects that target the community’s physical development and its social organisation. Overall, the process of social capital growth seems to be largely beyond the control of the individual resettlers. It is shaped by the context and its constituting elements, rather than by the characteristics of the individuals and households concerned.

Displacement of poor families contribute to the worsening of their poverty situation yet involuntary resettlement still takes place. According to the latest Report of the Indonesian Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction, more than 12,000 people were reportedly evicted in August 2008 to give way to the “green space” land reclamation projects (COHRE 2008). In the Philippines, 59,462 households were relocated in the period 2001 – 2006 (HUDCC 2008) because of various infrastructure projects. Though more recent data are lacking, there is no evidence that the pace of displacement is slowing down. The Impoverishment, Risks and Reconstruction (IRR) model of Cernea (2000) identifies nine interlinked potential risks inherent to displacement: landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, marginalization, food insecurity, increased morbidity and mortality, loss of access to common property, social disarticulation and educational loss. Out of the nine risks, social disarticulation or the loss of social capital in a resettlement site is the most complicated, because different factors are involved and because of its impact on vulnerability to the other risks. Social capital building or transplanting in an entirely different or new environment such as resettlement sites has remained an elusive topic in the research arena. This study tries to fill the void by addressing the following research problem: How does social capital grow across time in an involuntary resettlement setting and what is the role of the context and its elements in shaping this growth? The study used a comparative approach and a longitudinal perspective. Applying a longitudinal perspective aimed at capturing the process of social capital building through time. It entailed a framework that wove the factors involved in the process – as hypothesised on the basis of social capital and resettlement theories – into a timeline that comprised four periods. These four periods included before resettlement, the first year in the site after resettlement, the following years in the site, and the year of the field study (2011 in the first study area and 2012 in the second). The influence of social capital development in each period on the following period was investigated. Using a comparative perspective, two resettlement communities in Southeast Asia were chosen for this study. The first study site was in the Philippines and concerned an urban resettlement community named ‘Kasiglahan Village 1’ (KV1), situated in Barangay San Jose, Rodriguez, Rizal Province. The second study site, a rural resettlement community named ‘Bantarpanjang Translok’ (BT), was in Indonesia and located in Bantarpanjang, Cimanggu, Cilacap in Central Java Province, Both are government-managed resettlement communities. Moreover, the resettled households in both countries had incomes that were below the minimum standard of living, and the ages of the communities were sufficiently similar – the Philippine site was 12 years old, and the Indonesian site was 11 years in existence at the time of fieldwork. The age of the resettlement site is crucial for the longitudinal perspective utilized for this research. Although comparable in important aspects, the two locations differ in terms of their cultural traditions, physical location, institutional context, national resettlement policies, religion, ethnicity, and demographic and socio-economic profile. This allowed for a contextual analysis on the way in which social capital evolves. Data for this study were gathered by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative methods, such as in-depth interviews, exploratory interviews, observation, focus group discussions and life histories, were blended with quantitative methods. The latter included a household survey that used a tailored calendar tool to enhance the validity and reliability of the retrospective data. Social network analysis was conducted as well. The results of the analysis of the state of the communities before involuntary resettlement and a year later conveyed the following. Overall, involuntary resettlement in both setting did not significantly harm the households’ structural and cognitive social capital. After a year, the households in both settings were able to create and somehow duplicate the levels of trust and reciprocity they had in their previous communities. Moreover, the data suggest that the civic engagement history of the households is only influential in social capital building within a new community when the households share cultural traditions and social practices that are regularly observed. In the absence of such cultural traditions social practices, it is institutional interventions that will stimulate social capital formation. When looking at social capital creation across time in the two locations, the forging of ties among the household grows every year. There are three perspectives that can explain such a process. These are represented by variables relating to (i) individual and household attributes, (ii) the institutional context, and (iii) social capital history. On developing weak and strong ties, both cases demonstrate growth spurts during the year when there was an influx of resettlers and basic services and public places had been put in place. Moreover, after a period of upsurge, social capital attains a level of steady growth. Social capital growth can be seen as intertwined with the stabilisation of the resettlement sites in terms of physical infrastructure and social services as well as the achievement of a sense of “getting settled”. The study provides rich insights on the effects of resettlement programs and social capital on whether households in an involuntary resettlement context ‘get by’ or manage to ‘get ahead’ and improve their situation. The outcomes differ according to resettlement policies, culture, location, and phase of resettlement (first year and last year). In addition, all forms of structural social capital turned out meaningful for getting by and getting ahead, although some types of ties would feature more prominently than others. In the Philippines case, the number of support ties played a prominent role in the economic and physical well-being of the households, while in the Indonesian case it is the number of close individuals and number of government ties that mattered most. Overall, ‘soft’ resettlement inputs were found indispensable in both locations for the households’ capacity to get by and get ahead. Government meetings and membership of civic organizations contributed positively to household food security (last year) and social well-being (both years) of the Philippine resettlers. For the Indonesians, these contributed to their household income (first year) and social well-being in both periods. Community organisation should therefore be an integral part of resettlement projects. Social network analysis was conducted on the networks of households in Indonesia and those of community leaders in the Philippines. In Indonesia and the Philippines, social network analysis revealed that after a certain period in a new community and living among other involuntarily resettled strangers, households eventually establish interconnections among them. Gender proved to be a factor not only in shaping social networks but also in reinforcing certain advantages of some of the features of the social networks in a resettlement site. Gender differences emerged in both settings, the female advantage in forming friendships being one of them. In both cases, women (housewives in Indonesia and leaders in the Philippines) have a bigger proportion of friends in their network than men, indicating that they are better at nurturing connections that develop into friendship. The analysis also shows how the emerging community as a whole can benefit from the friendship networks of women. The default assignment of authority to men in the community and the wives supporting this gender construction, can account for the male-dominated brokerage roles and men being the influential actors in the Indonesian site. Contrastingly, in the Philippine location women leaders monopolize the brokerage role and are influential actors. Compared to male leaders, Filipino women leaders in the community have better interpersonal skills, are more empowered and are more active in civic organisations and activities. They bring more projects and activities to their members and connect better to the authorities than their male counterparts. This study provides strong evidence on a number of issues. First, the mending of new social communities by social capital building takes place right after the resettlement and amidst a worsening poverty situation in the new location. Second, civic engagement history can only significantly enhance social capital building in a site when it is shared by almost the entire community. Third, social capital history can be created by the new inhabitants of a resettlement site even in a short period of time. And fourth, the results of applying the institutional perspective underscore the importance of the creation of policies and projects that target the community’s physical development and its social organisation. Overall, the process of social capital growth seems to be largely beyond the control of the individual resettlers. It is shaped by the context and its constituting elements, rather than by the characteristics of the individuals and households concerned.

Het totale landoppervlak op aarde bedraagt 13 miljard hectare (== 13 Gha). Daarvan is ongeveer 9 Gha geschikt voor de plantaardige productie. De rest bestaat uit woestijnen, poolgebieden en rotseH. Thans wordt 5 Gha gebruikt voor de voedselproductie: 1,5 Gha voor akkerbouwgewassen en 3,5 Gha voor vectee!t (graslanden). Dc rest is bos/natllurgebied. Van de bossen wordt een deel gebruikt voor de productie van hout, papier en brandhOllt. Recente schattingen geven aan dat slechts 30% van de bossen op aarde primair bos is. Onderzoek: aanpak en gebruikte methodes Een groot dee! van de aarde wordt dus gebruikt voor de productie van voedscl, veevoer (gras) en vezcls {hout en papier) en brandhout. Aangezien de wereldbevolking nog steeds toeneemt, zal de vraag naar deze producten ook toenemen. Dit proefschrift besteedt aandacht aan de veranderende vraag naar voedsci, veevoer, {brand)hout en de invloed die dit heeft op het landgebruik. Hierbij speelt de gebruikte productiemethode een grote rol: bij hogere opbrengsten per hectare is er immers minder land nodig voor de productie van dezelfde hoeveclheid voedse! en hout. Het onderzoek begint met historische analyse: welke veranderingen traden er in het verleden op met betrekking tot bevolkingsaantallen, conslImptiepatronen, productiemethoden en wat waren de gevolgen daarvan voor het landgebruik? Vervolgens is er gekeken naar de invloed van import en export van voedscl en hout voor het landgebruik in een bepaald land. Historische analyse Veranderingen in de vraag naar voedsel en hout en in de prodllctiemethoden zijn op verschillende manieren onderzocht. Allereerst is er een gedetailleerde analyse gedaan van de veranderingen in de Filipijnen over de laatste 100 jaar (hoofdstuk 2 en 3). In deze periode groeide de bevolking van 8 naar 80 miljoen mensen en yond er een enorme ontbossing plaats.

Het totale landoppervlak op aarde bedraagt 13 miljard hectare (== 13 Gha). Daarvan is ongeveer 9 Gha geschikt voor de plantaardige productie. De rest bestaat uit woestijnen, poolgebieden en rotseH. Thans wordt 5 Gha gebruikt voor de voedselproductie: 1,5 Gha voor akkerbouwgewassen en 3,5 Gha voor vectee!t (graslanden). Dc rest is bos/natllurgebied. Van de bossen wordt een deel gebruikt voor de productie van hout, papier en brandhOllt. Recente schattingen geven aan dat slechts 30% van de bossen op aarde primair bos is. Onderzoek: aanpak en gebruikte methodes Een groot dee! van de aarde wordt dus gebruikt voor de productie van voedscl, veevoer (gras) en vezcls {hout en papier) en brandhout. Aangezien de wereldbevolking nog steeds toeneemt, zal de vraag naar deze producten ook toenemen. Dit proefschrift besteedt aandacht aan de veranderende vraag naar voedsci, veevoer, {brand)hout en de invloed die dit heeft op het landgebruik. Hierbij speelt de gebruikte productiemethode een grote rol: bij hogere opbrengsten per hectare is er immers minder land nodig voor de productie van dezelfde hoeveclheid voedse! en hout. Het onderzoek begint met historische analyse: welke veranderingen traden er in het verleden op met betrekking tot bevolkingsaantallen, conslImptiepatronen, productiemethoden en wat waren de gevolgen daarvan voor het landgebruik? Vervolgens is er gekeken naar de invloed van import en export van voedscl en hout voor het landgebruik in een bepaald land. Historische analyse Veranderingen in de vraag naar voedsel en hout en in de prodllctiemethoden zijn op verschillende manieren onderzocht. Allereerst is er een gedetailleerde analyse gedaan van de veranderingen in de Filipijnen over de laatste 100 jaar (hoofdstuk 2 en 3). In deze periode groeide de bevolking van 8 naar 80 miljoen mensen en yond er een enorme ontbossing plaats.

The thesis focuses on local level responses to recurrent small disasters and conflict in Afghanistan, Indonesia and the Philippines. It critically reflects on Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) approaches to understand the gap between CBDRR policy and actual outcomes. It considers the multi-level institutions through with meaning and implementation of CBDRR policy are negotiated and transformed, from the conceptual policy design stage until the arena where decisions on risk solutions and resource allocation are made. Disasters and conflict are both understood as the product of a cumulative set of institutional arrangements and policy decisions over a long period of time. Vice versa, disasters and conflict affect institutional arrangements and re-order power relations. Interventions like CBDRR are not isolated, distinct entities, but are very much embedded in a context of particular institutional arrangements, which constrain or enable local actors to advance their risk-solutions. Through CBDRR interventions actors defend and mobilize around CBDRR practices that are meaningful to them, or resist institutions and practices that carry meanings they find disagreeable. This results in the manifold manifestations of CBDRR practices and outcomes. The research concludes that there is no such thing as the CBDRR approach. Instead, there are different processes through which local NGOs, civil society organizations, funding agencies and government agencies arrive at a specific framing of local realities and their responses in the context they live and work. These are related to their histories, current state - civil society relationships, and their mandate on how they legitimize their interventions. These actors either underscore the politics of their interventions or rather de-politicize them. From the experiences of this research it is plausible to conclude that when one ignores to view CBDRR interventions in a political and institutional manner, the outcomes of the interventions are likely to reproduce the status quo and are not supporting the vulnerable populations. The implication for humanitarian aid agencies is to include an institutional and political analysis in risk and vulnerability assessments to explain people’ vulnerability. This is crucial for strategizing actions and to engage in the political arena of disaster risk reduction with the aim to create safe and resilient communities. Rather than simply aiming for isolated village-level project objectives, CBDRR interventions have to think ahead of results to be achieved at district and even national level.

Nederlandse importeurs van vis, schaal- en schelpdieren uit Azië zien graag meer aanbod van kwaliteitsgarnalen en duurzame tonijn uit de regio. LEI Wageningen UR onderzocht hoe dat aanbod zou kunnen groeien.

The white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) affecting shrimp aquaculture in most producing countries has caused huge economic losses resulting in bankruptcy to both large and small farmers. Studies done on WSSV epidemiology were mostly tank-based and on species other than Penaeus monodon. There is a need to investigate WSSV epidemiology in P. monodon in on-farm situations, thus including both risk and protective factors. This thesis aimed to generate knowledge that can improve prevention against WSSV in shrimp culture through better farm husbandry by studying the epidemiology of WSSV in on-farm situations. To achieve this goal data from cross-sectional and case studies were analysed to identify on-farm WSSV risk and protective factors, and longitudinal studies were done to assess factors affecting water quality and causing WSSV infection to result in an outbreak. The thesis identified the following WSSV risk factors related to the physico-chemical parameters of the water: low and fluctuating temperature, low and fluctuating salinity, and pH fluctuation. The risk of high temperature and high salinity for an outbreak of WSV disease may be related to fluctuations in these two parameters. Risk factors related to farm husbandry techniques were feeding with molluscs, sludge removal and its deposition on the dike, sharing water source with other farms and having the same receiving and intake water. Identified WSSV protective factors were high mangrove to pond area ratio, feeding with natural food or phytoplankton, and higher percentage of beneficial bacteria like the yellow colonies that grow on thiosulphate citrate bilesalt sucrose agar, a Vibrio selective medium. Results of the longitudinal studies demonstrated that WSSV infection may not result in outbreaks in greenwater pond and in ponds with mangroves in the receiving environment. Our results did not provide explanations why the WSSV infection did not result in an outbreak in farms with mangroves in the receiving environment. In greenwater ponds, this was attributed to the better water and soil quality, higher plankton count, and higher heterotrophic bacterial count.

Nederlandse importeurs van vis, schaal- en schelpdieren uit Azië zien graag meer aanbod van kwaliteitsgarnalen en duurzame tonijn uit de regio. LEI Wageningen UR onderzocht hoe dat aanbod zou kunnen groeien.

The Asian region is a major supplier of fish products to the EU market. Over the period 2005-2010 in par-ticular, the aquaculture sector in some Asian countries became an important producer as well as exporter of whitefish and shrimps. Within the Asian region CBI is currently studying the possibilities of developing in-tegrated programmes for the seafood sector for specific countries. This follows up on CBI’s current sea-food activities in Indonesia with the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) and the Surabaya Seafood Centre.

The white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) affecting shrimp aquaculture in most producing countries has caused huge economic losses resulting in bankruptcy to both large and small farmers. Studies done on WSSV epidemiology were mostly tank-based and on species other than Penaeus monodon. There is a need to investigate WSSV epidemiology in P. monodon in on-farm situations, thus including both risk and protective factors. This thesis aimed to generate knowledge that can improve prevention against WSSV in shrimp culture through better farm husbandry by studying the epidemiology of WSSV in on-farm situations. To achieve this goal data from cross-sectional and case studies were analysed to identify on-farm WSSV risk and protective factors, and longitudinal studies were done to assess factors affecting water quality and causing WSSV infection to result in an outbreak. The thesis identified the following WSSV risk factors related to the physico-chemical parameters of the water: low and fluctuating temperature, low and fluctuating salinity, and pH fluctuation. The risk of high temperature and high salinity for an outbreak of WSV disease may be related to fluctuations in these two parameters. Risk factors related to farm husbandry techniques were feeding with molluscs, sludge removal and its deposition on the dike, sharing water source with other farms and having the same receiving and intake water. Identified WSSV protective factors were high mangrove to pond area ratio, feeding with natural food or phytoplankton, and higher percentage of beneficial bacteria like the yellow colonies that grow on thiosulphate citrate bilesalt sucrose agar, a Vibrio selective medium. Results of the longitudinal studies demonstrated that WSSV infection may not result in outbreaks in greenwater pond and in ponds with mangroves in the receiving environment. Our results did not provide explanations why the WSSV infection did not result in an outbreak in farms with mangroves in the receiving environment. In greenwater ponds, this was attributed to the better water and soil quality, higher plankton count, and higher heterotrophic bacterial count.

Het totale landoppervlak op aarde bedraagt 13 miljard hectare (== 13 Gha). Daarvan is ongeveer 9 Gha geschikt voor de plantaardige productie. De rest bestaat uit woestijnen, poolgebieden en rotseH. Thans wordt 5 Gha gebruikt voor de voedselproductie: 1,5 Gha voor akkerbouwgewassen en 3,5 Gha voor vectee!t (graslanden). Dc rest is bos/natllurgebied. Van de bossen wordt een deel gebruikt voor de productie van hout, papier en brandhOllt. Recente schattingen geven aan dat slechts 30% van de bossen op aarde primair bos is. Onderzoek: aanpak en gebruikte methodes Een groot dee! van de aarde wordt dus gebruikt voor de productie van voedscl, veevoer (gras) en vezcls {hout en papier) en brandhout. Aangezien de wereldbevolking nog steeds toeneemt, zal de vraag naar deze producten ook toenemen. Dit proefschrift besteedt aandacht aan de veranderende vraag naar voedsci, veevoer, {brand)hout en de invloed die dit heeft op het landgebruik. Hierbij speelt de gebruikte productiemethode een grote rol: bij hogere opbrengsten per hectare is er immers minder land nodig voor de productie van dezelfde hoeveclheid voedse! en hout. Het onderzoek begint met historische analyse: welke veranderingen traden er in het verleden op met betrekking tot bevolkingsaantallen, conslImptiepatronen, productiemethoden en wat waren de gevolgen daarvan voor het landgebruik? Vervolgens is er gekeken naar de invloed van import en export van voedscl en hout voor het landgebruik in een bepaald land. Historische analyse Veranderingen in de vraag naar voedsel en hout en in de prodllctiemethoden zijn op verschillende manieren onderzocht. Allereerst is er een gedetailleerde analyse gedaan van de veranderingen in de Filipijnen over de laatste 100 jaar (hoofdstuk 2 en 3). In deze periode groeide de bevolking van 8 naar 80 miljoen mensen en yond er een enorme ontbossing plaats.

The thesis focuses on local level responses to recurrent small disasters and conflict in Afghanistan, Indonesia and the Philippines. It critically reflects on Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) approaches to understand the gap between CBDRR policy and actual outcomes. It considers the multi-level institutions through with meaning and implementation of CBDRR policy are negotiated and transformed, from the conceptual policy design stage until the arena where decisions on risk solutions and resource allocation are made. Disasters and conflict are both understood as the product of a cumulative set of institutional arrangements and policy decisions over a long period of time. Vice versa, disasters and conflict affect institutional arrangements and re-order power relations. Interventions like CBDRR are not isolated, distinct entities, but are very much embedded in a context of particular institutional arrangements, which constrain or enable local actors to advance their risk-solutions. Through CBDRR interventions actors defend and mobilize around CBDRR practices that are meaningful to them, or resist institutions and practices that carry meanings they find disagreeable. This results in the manifold manifestations of CBDRR practices and outcomes. The research concludes that there is no such thing as the CBDRR approach. Instead, there are different processes through which local NGOs, civil society organizations, funding agencies and government agencies arrive at a specific framing of local realities and their responses in the context they live and work. These are related to their histories, current state - civil society relationships, and their mandate on how they legitimize their interventions. These actors either underscore the politics of their interventions or rather de-politicize them. From the experiences of this research it is plausible to conclude that when one ignores to view CBDRR interventions in a political and institutional manner, the outcomes of the interventions are likely to reproduce the status quo and are not supporting the vulnerable populations. The implication for humanitarian aid agencies is to include an institutional and political analysis in risk and vulnerability assessments to explain people’ vulnerability. This is crucial for strategizing actions and to engage in the political arena of disaster risk reduction with the aim to create safe and resilient communities. Rather than simply aiming for isolated village-level project objectives, CBDRR interventions have to think ahead of results to be achieved at district and even national level.

Food is a universal basic need. The diverse ways in which people and households try to meet this need, the constraints they are up against in doing so, and the strategies they develop to reduce their vulnerability to food insecurity form the core of this book. A large range of findings on these subjects is reviewed and analysed, based on recent research carried out in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Indonesia and the Philippines. Household food provision and the nutritional status of household members reflect processes and outcomes that reach far beyond agricultural parameters of food production and biological indicators of nutrient intake. They evolve in a dynamic and gendered context shaped by ecological, socio-cultural, economic and political factors. Hence, research in the field provides a meeting ground for researchers with various disciplinary backgrounds, like agronomists, nutrition scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, and economists. The methodological implications of this are discussed in the book as well.

Food is a universal basic need. The diverse ways in which people and households try to meet this need, the constraints they are up against in doing so, and the strategies they develop to reduce their vulnerability to food insecurity form the core of this book. A large range of findings on these subjects is reviewed and analysed, based on recent research carried out in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Indonesia and the Philippines. Household food provision and the nutritional status of household members reflect processes and outcomes that reach far beyond agricultural parameters of food production and biological indicators of nutrient intake. They evolve in a dynamic and gendered context shaped by ecological, socio-cultural, economic and political factors. Hence, research in the field provides a meeting ground for researchers with various disciplinary backgrounds, like agronomists, nutrition scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, and economists. The methodological implications of this are discussed in the book as well.

De LNV-raad namens Nederland voor de Filippijnen is drs. Adriede Roo. Nog niet zo lang geleden overlegde hij met de minister van landbouw van de Filippijnen over mogelijkheden om op de eilanden aardappelen te telen die geschikt zijn voor verwerking.Dit om deviezen te sparen en om lokaal meerwaarde aan de aardappelketen te geven. Ook is gesproken over een mogelijke rol voor het Nederlandse bedrijfsleven in dit voorstel. Aan onderzoekers van Wageningen UR, Anton Haverkort en Romke Wustman, is gevraagd om de haalbaarheid hiervan uit te zoeken.

This book documents a water conflict known as the Bayanan water issue in Calapan City, the Philippines. Drinking water privatization in Calapan City was implemented by the book; a private company was granted extensive water rights and subsequently made capital investments in a drinking water system in a bid to improve water services for consumers. Sadly, it was also water privatization failure by the book. In circumstances of a weak State and a weak market, the policy intervention of water privatization intensified conflicts over water control, excluded water users from decisions about their own resources, allowed commercial interests to prevail and produced increased risks to ecosystems. These issues are serious barriers for any form of equitable and sustainable water management, and call for critical rethinking of market approaches in water management. Increased water conflicts and risks to ecosystems need to be addressed more prominently in contemporary debates on (drinking) water privatization. Therefore this case study of the Philippines is relevant reading for any policy maker, practitioner and researcher working on water privatization.

This book documents a water conflict known as the Bayanan water issue in Calapan City, the Philippines. Drinking water privatization in Calapan City was implemented by the book; a private company was granted extensive water rights and subsequently made capital investments in a drinking water system in a bid to improve water services for consumers. Sadly, it was also water privatization failure by the book. In circumstances of a weak State and a weak market, the policy intervention of water privatization intensified conflicts over water control, excluded water users from decisions about their own resources, allowed commercial interests to prevail and produced increased risks to ecosystems. These issues are serious barriers for any form of equitable and sustainable water management, and call for critical rethinking of market approaches in water management. Increased water conflicts and risks to ecosystems need to be addressed more prominently in contemporary debates on (drinking) water privatization. Therefore this case study of the Philippines is relevant reading for any policy maker, practitioner and researcher working on water privatization.

Keywords: sediment gaps, Alpheus macellarius, Thalassinidea, burrows, seagrasscanopies, sediment characteristics, PhilippinesSmall-scale disturbance of seagrass meadows by burrowing shrimps was assessed bymapping and quantifying apparent disturbance marks (burrow openings, sandpatches, sand mounds, shafts) and obtaining vertical profiles of sediment properties(grain size composition, organic matter and nutrient contents). The densities andsizes of sediment gaps and burrow openings were determined within samplingquadrats in various meadows and were correlated with ambient bed and sitecharacteristics. Effects on sediment properties were determined in a comparison ofdisturbed and undisturbed areas in two beds with contrasting organic matter sources.Burrow openings and sediment gaps were common in all the meadows and wereassociated with either the snapping shrimp Alpheus macellarius Chace, 1988(Alpheidae, Caridea), or species of Thalassinidea. Alpheid shrimp disturbance wasmore frequent than that of thalassinidean shrimps. The distribution of sand moundsand associated shafts of thalassinidean shrimps were random, whereas thedistribution of sand patches and burrow openings of alpheid shrimps on the bedsappeared regular and clumped, respectively. The densities and sizes of sedimentgaps and openings were higher and larger in wave-protected than in exposed beds (p< 0.05). Shrimp disturbance was more prevalent in clear-water than in turbidseagrass areas of the Bolinao-Anda region. The distribution of thalassinideanshrimps, however, was wider than that of A. macellarius, which was observed to bepatch areas of 14 ± 2% of the meadows while thalassinidean shrimps produced sandmounds that covered 4 ± 1%.Burrowing shrimps altered the vertical profiles of sediment properties – A.macellarius relocated a significant proportion of coarse grains in the upper 10 cmwhile the thalassinidean shrimps consolidated finer fractions from 10 to 20 cm downthe core, and consequently concentrated organic matter. Both shrimps reducednitrogen by 20-73% in the top 10 cm sediment layer, by 4-36% in sediment deeperthan 10 cm, but did not affect profiles of phosphorus.

Keywords: sediment gaps, Alpheus macellarius, Thalassinidea, burrows, seagrasscanopies, sediment characteristics, PhilippinesSmall-scale disturbance of seagrass meadows by burrowing shrimps was assessed bymapping and quantifying apparent disturbance marks (burrow openings, sandpatches, sand mounds, shafts) and obtaining vertical profiles of sediment properties(grain size composition, organic matter and nutrient contents). The densities andsizes of sediment gaps and burrow openings were determined within samplingquadrats in various meadows and were correlated with ambient bed and sitecharacteristics. Effects on sediment properties were determined in a comparison ofdisturbed and undisturbed areas in two beds with contrasting organic matter sources.Burrow openings and sediment gaps were common in all the meadows and wereassociated with either the snapping shrimp Alpheus macellarius Chace, 1988(Alpheidae, Caridea), or species of Thalassinidea. Alpheid shrimp disturbance wasmore frequent than that of thalassinidean shrimps. The distribution of sand moundsand associated shafts of thalassinidean shrimps were random, whereas thedistribution of sand patches and burrow openings of alpheid shrimps on the bedsappeared regular and clumped, respectively. The densities and sizes of sedimentgaps and openings were higher and larger in wave-protected than in exposed beds (p< 0.05). Shrimp disturbance was more prevalent in clear-water than in turbidseagrass areas of the Bolinao-Anda region. The distribution of thalassinideanshrimps, however, was wider than that of A. macellarius, which was observed to bepatch areas of 14 ± 2% of the meadows while thalassinidean shrimps produced sandmounds that covered 4 ± 1%.Burrowing shrimps altered the vertical profiles of sediment properties – A.macellarius relocated a significant proportion of coarse grains in the upper 10 cmwhile the thalassinidean shrimps consolidated finer fractions from 10 to 20 cm downthe core, and consequently concentrated organic matter. Both shrimps reducednitrogen by 20-73% in the top 10 cm sediment layer, by 4-36% in sediment deeperthan 10 cm, but did not affect profiles of phosphorus.

Food insecurity results from a web of problems involving human and non-human processes within certain environments. This thesis is both a methodological and a policy-oriented study. It explores the linkages in order to understand the food security situation in less favored areas (LFAs) in the Philippines. In the Philippines, food insecurity can be argued as most seriously felt in the LFAs which constitute about 65 percent of total agricultural land and where about 70 percent of the rural poor live. About 40 percent remain poor and food insecure in the rural areas. The two research villages (i.e. Alegre and Plaridel) in Leyte are representative of different types of LFAs: the flood-prone lowlands and the high risk eroded uplands and mountainous region in varied socio-economic settings. Methodological issues: fit, relevance and applicabilitySince food security is multi-faceted, the three dimensions of food availability, access and adequacy are addressed using a combination of formal surveys and qualitative tools (e.g. focussed group discussions, case studies, key informant interviews), which were so designed that they mutually enrich the investigation. The formal surveys (i.e. household production and socio-economic survey; food consumption, nutrition and health survey) are parallels to the existing national surveys regularly conducted (FIES, NNS), and were so selected to build on them in order to gain insights at improving their usefulness, particularly for the comprehensive assessment of food security. The various non-formal survey methods and tools were designed to give contextual information on the results of the statistical analyses (multi-variate analyses), and to qualify and enrich the interpretation of the significant variables that were identified in the regressions.This thesis attempts to treat the food insecurity issue among households in LFAs using the livelihood approach within the framework of the interrelationships between their biophysical and socio-economic environments. The variables used in the analyses also consisted of biophysical, socio-demographic and economic variables. The households in the LFAs are engaged in farming to a greater or lesser degree. Iit is therefore logical that the biophysical environment is the starting point of analysis. This was done in the agro-ecology and land-use ethno-histories, the case studies, the community surveys and in the elaboration of Hypothesis 1. The latter deals with productivity determinants of the major food and cash crops. It was hypothesized that the niggardliness of the biophysical resource, and other biophysical-related and socio-economic factors contributed to low farm productivity, and thus, pushed households to seek for other sources of income.Hypothesis 2 deals with the factors that most likely affect the households’ decision in composing their livelihood portfolio. Livelihoods are grouped into four types: same percentage distribution of income sources (LIVETYP1); farm income>50% (LIVETYP2); off-farm income>50% (LIVETYP3); non-farm income>50% (LIVETYP4), based on the income percentage criteria of the total full income of households obtained from these various income sources. This was found to be a useful classification because of the divergent trends found in LFAs, despite the similarities in cultivated crop (coconut, rice, rootcrops) and livelihood activities (farming, backyard piggery, domestic services, seasonal off-farm work, carpentry/construction). With this classification, it was found that one village counts more of the farming type of households (Alegre), and the other more the non-farm type of households (Plaridel). The regressions on Hypotheses 1 and 2 combined with the community surveys and case studies explained and qualified the differences in livelihood portfolios. Also, it was found that livelihood types do impact significantly on the choice and productivity of crop systems and the nutritional status of children. This thesis argues for the usefulness of the livelihood approach in exploring the linkages in food security analysis.In addition, the data and regression results built around hypotheses 1 and 2 provided insights in food availability and food access. Finally, food adequacy is dealt with in Hypothesis 3 which investigated the determinants of nutrient intake and nutritional status of children, the latter as proxy for health. Nutritional status was regressed on the livelihood types together with economic, socio-demographic and health-related variables. Coming full circle, the factors affecting nutritional status of children as well as their health conditions were identified.In methodological terms, the study attempts to provide a workable protocol for an integrative analysis of food security which can be applicable in development work (e.g. RDE programs and projects) or for policy purposes at local or national levels. This protocol is relevant and fitting particularly to the Philippine setting because of the recent moves to improve the local database of minimum basic data needs for food security assessments. The procedure and results of this study can be instructive and be tested, and further improved, in the current food security assessment initiatives by local government units with the assistance of the SUCs and research institutes. Research results: In this section, I will summarize the results and relevant policy concerns. But first, I will present a brief on the food security situation in the LFAs as gathered from the results of the ethno-histories, FGDs, case studies, community surveys and informal interviews in the research villages.Nature and man both played a role in the deterioration of the villages’ landscapes over time. Flood-prone Alegre is located along the typhoon path. The unregulated quarrying operations of the politics-backed businessmen and the deforestation of the bigger watershed of which the village is part, greatly contributed to the high risk of floods which can be triggered just by heavy rains. This means high risk of flooding for the rice farms, vegetable and rootcrop gardens, which contribute significantly to food and cash. This results in the erosion of capital which is usually sourced from the often usurious credit. With respect to farming, mainly upland Plaridel is no better, except for the fact that it has an additional cash crop, abaca, which provides added opportunities for off-farm wage work. Plaridel is also along the typhoon path, its hilly and mountainous farms exposed to wind and rain that cause erosions. Illegal logging by the influential and wealthy local businessmen has also contributed to the deterioration, and, in addition, has caused damage to the fish habitat leading to the disappearance of local fishing as an important livelihood. In both villages, farmers do not have the incentive for conservation farming. Farming income in general is not enough to feed and attend to the other basic needs of households. Both villages differ in many respects from each other and this led to differences in livelihood strategies and the food security situation. Plaridel is a bigger village in terms of non-farm (native craft industry, construction, trade) and off-farm opportunities (coconut and abaca) and is part of a more economically vigorous local economy, whereas Alegre has fewer non-farm (domestic service, local transport) and off-farm (smaller coconut and rice) activities. About 47 percent of households in Plaridel are depending mostly on non-farm incomes, and about 42 percent in Alegre mostly on farm incomes. The per capita income of Plaridel is about 0.90 USD and of Alegre 0.64 USD, both still below the WB poverty threshold of a dollar a day. In terms of income, households in these villages are poor. This below poverty threshold income presents serious limitations in terms of food access. Enough nutrient sources of food are available in the nearby town and village markets yet the households reported being food deficit two to three months a year during the off-harvest season when cash is also very low. Food access is the more limiting factor. Food habits are part of culture. Partly because of cultural factors and partly because of the village terrain and proximity of fields, Alegre households tend to have vegetable gardens more than in Plaridel, though quite limited in diversity. The use of the nutritious taro and sweetpotato leaves and petioles, and the preparation of many dishes with fresh coconut milk are very much a part of the Waray-waray food culture. Despite the relatively lower per capita income than Plaridel, Alegre household members turned out to have better nutrient adequacy for all nutrients tested and for all age groups. This could also be because Alegre mothers had more time for home and child care (associated with farm and off-farm type households) than Plaridel mothers (non-farm type households). The statistical regressions showed the high significance and importance of off-farm type households as positively affecting the nutritional status of children via the associated intensity of time allocation for home and child care. Though still below national averages, Alegre households are better off in nutrient adequacy for all nutrients than the better-income households in Plaridel. This allows for the conclusion that a higher income level per se is not an assurance of nutrient adequacy. Further, the home garden argument implies that improving the availability of nutrient sources from the home gardens provides opportunity for food and nutrient adequacy improvements especially among the poor households whose income levels will really take time, if at all, to adequately improve.The village government of Plaridel was able to adequately provide for quality drinking water from three spring water sources in the mountains, while potable drinking water in Alegre was accessed outside the village due to poor quality of its groundwater. Plaridel has better school and health facilities than Alegre, where households are served by one school only and have some access to health services. There were more sources of credit in Plaridel, including the Church-organized cooperative for home industry and consumption uses, while Alegre households had to contend with the usurious local moneylenders, except for one or two farmers who accessed credit from the Rural Bank in town. Plaridel has relatively more traders who are also financiers of farm capital, i.e. seed, fertilizers or wage payment. Comparatively, Plaridel has more in terms of economic opportunities and support services, while Alegre has more of economic constraints. The economic gains however have not been translated in terms of nutritional status.All these basic data provide strongly for the argument that the significant and important factors that contribute to food security are not only economic in nature. Economic factors such as income and food budget are necessary but not sufficient conditions for food security.Among poor households, labour is the most important resource. Labour as a variable, is a special case, and I will treat it as quasi-economic and quasi-social because it has both an economic and a social value. The latter simply means that the consideration for labour use decision is not only for monetary aims but also for non-monetary rewards or benefits. This is especially true with regard to a mother’s or a wife’s use of labour time. In households where women play a dual role as both producer and consumer, valuation of labour is subjective because there is no ‘real market’ for own use of time partly because of social norms. This has an important bearing particularly in labour substitution between wage and domestic work.The hard evidence: in reply to the queriesThe main research question that this thesis deals with is: “How do the livelihoods of farming households impact on their food security in a context of ecologically fragile environments?” The explanations of the variables or factors from the interrelationship between hypotheses 1 and 2, and between hypotheses 2 and 3 clarify the answer to this question.It is clear at the outset that farming households in the LFAs are on average poor and engaged in diverse activities to make ends meet. In this study, the households are classified based on the percentage contribution of income from three groups of activities (farm, off-farm, non-farm). The ‘livelihood typology’ is used as a proxy for resource-use strategies. Households face difficult choices in allocating their two most important resources, labour and time, with very meagre contribution of other inputs, because of constraints and limited opportunities.The livelihoods of farming households in less favoured areas are affected by the interplay of biophysical and socio-economic factors. These factors have differential impact on the different livelihood types because of the availability and competing use of labour of adult working members, the household size, the size of cultivated farm, value of farm produce, and the existence of idle lands. From direct observation and interviews it bacame apparent that idle land is the catch-all variable for poor quality land and/or the lack of capital to make use of technology and other inputs.It will be noted that the final indicator of food security is that of nutrition adequacy, the latter of which is indicated by nutrient adequacy of the individual household members and nutritional status of children. In the final analysis, the nutritional status of children, especially those under five, is highly significantly and positively affected when households income is obtained more from off-farm activities (LIVETYP3), and positively when more income comes from non-farm activities (LIVETYP4), and negatively when income is more from farming activities (LIVETYP2). The evidence for the latter two, however, is not conclusive.Hypothesis 1: low farm productivity and multi-livelihoodsHow does the situation in ecologically less favoured areas affect the choice and generation of livelihoods?The first hypothesis has addressed this query by investigating the effect of the biophysical and socio-economic environments on farm productivity. Households have stopped depending only on their farms for sustenance because of low farm productivity and low farm incomes. They maintain a dual or multi-activity livelihood portfolio because farming alone cannot provide adequately, even for their most basic needs. Households usually combine farming with other sources of income: in farm wage work (coconut, rice, and abaca) and/or non-farm employment (native craft, peddling, domestic service). The biophysical and related factors found to have highly significant effects on crop productivity include the season, fertilizer use, irrigation water and soil type for rice, terrain and variety for sweetpotato, cropping pattern for abaca; and idle land, indirectly, via livelihood choice (LIVETYP4) for coconut and rice. The higher the incidence of idle lands, the greater the tendency for households to engage in non-farm employment, and the more non-productive the farms are due to labour shifts away from them. Poor land quality with less or no capital and technology inputs to start with, results in low farm productivity. The socio-economic variables that have significant impact on farm productivity are: non-farm income, share tenancy, remittances, and dependency ratio for abaca, wage rate, production cost, farming experience for rice and coconut, age of farmer for sweetpotato, and livelihood type for coconut, abaca and rice. It is important to note that the cash crops abaca, coconut and rice are more sensitive to livelihood types especially the non-farm (LIVETYP4) and off-farm (LIVETYP3) livelihood types. The negative relation implies a labour substitution effect (coconut, abaca) and the positive relation implies the capital plough-back effect (rice). Higher wage rate will have a greater likelihood of reducing rice yield due to labour shifts into more lucrative non-farm work, but not with coconut and abaca because these are the main cash crops. Similarly, the effects of the off-farm income and non-farm income variables depend on relative labour shifts away from coconut farms, and the capital plough-back in abaca farms, respectively. The higher the dependency ratio the more likely farmers intensify the use of resources for abaca farming because it is the more cash-earning crop, with a stable market and better prices. The more remittances a household has the more negative the impact on abaca production due to distance-induced inertia because the abaca fields are located three kilometres or more to the mountains. Share tenancy is significant but not a negative issue, especially with abaca and rice, because what is more relevant is the use-right of the land without the burden of tax (which goes with ownership). Working on the land for generations has generated family loyalty sealed with mutual benefits. Share tenancy, however, tends to negatively impact on coconut productivity because of labour shifts, which are likely due to the more diffused labour use among coconut farmers who are engaged more in off-farm and non-farm activities.These differential effects on the various crops show that crops respond differently to various factors, and this factor-specificity has important policy implications for targeting intervention options for productivity improvement.Hypothesis 2: the livelihood portfolio – choices and dimensionsFrom Hypothesis 1, it is concluded that farming households have a diversified livelihood portfolio because low productivity and low incomes from farming cannot sustain their lives. In summary, livelihood type has high significant correlations with the variables farm wage worker (+), age of household head (+), size of cultivated area (-), actual household size (-), value of farm produce (+), number of working children (+/-). The evidence on the life cycle variable is not conclusive. Generally, the behaviour of the relationships shows labour shifts from one type of activity to another mainly because of household size, labour supply within household, the area and productivity of the farm.The inclusion of the dimensions on assets and resources, sex, age, and life course was based on their assumed importance in the process of decision-making for the livelihood portfolio. In Hypothesis 2, these are included as independent variables in the multivariate regressions for the livelihood types, and sought to address the basic question of what determines the households’ livelihood portfolio. Livelihood type one (LIVETYP1), the control, refers to household livelihood strategies which result in more or less equal distribution of income earnings from farm, off-farm and non-farm sources; livelihood type two (LIVETYP2), where the share of farm income is greater than 50 percent; livelihood type three (LIVETYP3), when off-farm income is greater than 50 percent; and livelihood type 4 (LIVETYP4), when non-farm income is greater than 50 percent. The non-farm livelihood type household tends to be highly significantly and positively related with idle land. There is a significant and negative relation with actual household size. This clearly shows the movement towards more non-farm employment when land becomes less productive, or with the lack of inputs or incentive to till the soil. A smaller household size means that one or two spouses can have more labour time shifted from domestic to non-farm work. This variable is highly significant for off-farm livelihood type. Farm wage worker is highly significantly and positively related with both farm and off-farm based livelihood types. But with more working members, household labour will likely be shifted to off-farm work. Although not conclusive, life cycle tends to have a negative relationship with the off-farm livelihood type, since the earlier in the life cycle with no child, the more labour time available for off-farm work. The value of farm produce is highly significant and positively related with farm livelihood type, showing that households will greatly rely on farm income if its value is high. This is a variable that captures relatively good land, better yield, and better market. Also the bigger the farm land cultivated, the more likely the negative impact on off-farm livelihood type because this would mean greater labour requirement on farm, and thus, less labour available for off-farm work.The role of gender is critical in terms of type of labour available and employment opportunity. Male labour is usually employed in off-farm activity of cash crops such as coconut and abaca, and female labour mostly for non-farm employment like native crafts and domestic services. Household size affects labour supply, especially of women since their labour use on domestic chores is high. Hence, a bigger household size tends to negatively impact on their availability for off-farm (in rice) and non-farm work.Hypothesis 3: nutrient adequacy and nutritional statusFollowing through the series of relations and results, the final answer to the main question is provided in this section on the food adequacy situation. On the whole, nutrient adequacy and nutritional status of households and individuals in the LFAs, as represented by the research villages, are far below the national averages.The study found no significant differences in the nutrient adequacy levels between age and sex groups, except a better-off picture of adequacy for all nutrients among children below 5 years of age. Overall, the energy adequacy level is only about 50 percent, which has serious implications for the growth of children and health of adults. Children under 5 and adults tend to have better nutrient adequacy, but children under 5 are critically deficient in Vitamin A, C, riboflavin and calories. The males, the children and adults tend to be more adequate in protein than the teenagers and the females. Also, there were no significant differences in the nutrient fair-share ratio by sex or age which indicates a fairly equitable distribution of nutrients within the household. However, there was a slight positive bias for all nutrients in favour of children below 5 years old, and women tend to be slightly favoured with calcium, vitamin C and thiamine. This reflects priority given to the very young and mother’s nutrient needs. Despite the lower average per capita income in Alegre, it showed better adequacy levels than Plaridel for all nutrients. Obviously, not because of the income factor but for a mix of reasons: there were more home gardens in Alegre, resulting in a more nutritious diet in the area, and more mother home care time as gleaned from their livelihood patterns. Nutrient intake is the major determinant for nutritional status. This implies that nutritional status is significantly dependent on variables affecting nutrient intake, such as the food budget, time allocated for home care, mother’s or caregiver’s education, the availability of non-bought food (own-production, given), household size, age and sex of the individual. There are differential impacts of each of these variables on specific nutrients based on the sensitivity of the nutrient to each of the above variables. Thus, a greater probability that households and individuals in less favoured areas will have higher nutritional status when the food budget is improved, when mothers are better educated to take care of the home and its food needs, when household size is planned to a reasonable minimum, and when food is available from non-bought sources. As the food budget includes both bought and non-bought food, the food budget can be improved not only by improving income but also by intensifying the home production of nutrient-rich food crops. The separate regressions for nutritional status, using the weight-for-age of children as dependent variable, found as highly significant such variables as drinking water quality, education of mother, total farm full income, livelihood type, and short-term morbidity. Hygiene was significant particularly for children less than 5 years. Nutrient knowledge per se was not found significant in the individual nutrient intake regressions, but was found highly significant and positive with the nutritional status of school age children. Livelihood types matter in nutritional status via labour and time allocation and food priority effects. The off-farm livelihood type (LIVETYP3) was found highly significant and positively affecting the pre-schoolers’ health, most probably because of time allocation effects when the mother has more home care time with the child when the father is away for off-farm work. Though not conclusive, the farming livelihood type (LIVETYP2) variable is negatively related with health of schoolchildren, and the non-farming livelihood type (LIVETYP4) variable is positively related with the pre-schoolers’ health via time allocation effects and priority to the very young with additional food from improved food budget, respectively. Total farm full income includes all produce of the farm that are sold and those consumed in the home. This variable is highly significantly and positively related with health of children under 5, yet significantly and negatively with school children’s health. This again highlights the contribution of non-traded or home-grown food and nutrient sources since the income variable per se has no evidence of significance. More significant is the trade-off between food, care and goods in favour of the pre-schoolers. These further confirm how pressing the food and income constraints are among the poor households that this trade-off is biased against the school children. With pre-school children, short-term morbidity is highly significant and important as they are more sensitive and prone to contracting illness of whatever kind. Hygiene practices are a significant factor in the health of pre-schoolers, but not with primary schoolchildren. This implies the relative sensitivity of children under 5 to hygienic practices and conditions. There is no conclusive evidence for garbage disposal. Firming up policy optionsTable 11 presents the summary of policy actions necessary to address the significant and important variables identified in this study. The initiation level indicates where policy can originate. National refers to the national agency or relevant research, development and extension institute (RDE), and local refers to provincial, municipal or village governments. The indication of both national and local implies strong coordination with the relevant national agency or research institute and local government unit. Effective implementation presupposes good governance, cost-sharing for cost effectiveness, good human and non-human resources management, and collaboration and partnership with non-government organizations and community-based organizations present in the respective areas.Given the results of this study, significant policy concerns can be drawn and need to be addressed in order to respond to the persistent food insecurity in LFAs. But there are major over-arching concerns that must be considered in drawing out policy options: the continued deterioration of the biophysical environment (watershed management, resource conservation), the movement away from the farm in livelihood pursuits and the increasing role of non-farm employment, a rationalized RDE in agriculture, and agrarian reform. Land suitability should be an integral part of agriculture RDE, both at the national and local levels. These concerns will need a longer time perspective, a broader scope of policy action, and concerted efforts in order to effectively help poor households, especially in the targeted LFAs. Addressing these concerns will help provide both the necessary and sufficient conditions for the policy actions, herein summarized, to have impact on the significant variables (biophysical factors, land tenure, non-farm livelihood, remittances). There is need for a review and assessment of the planned and implemented programs related to these concerns. In the medium and long runs, the RDE programs for cash and export crops, like coconut and abaca, need special attention in order to improve their productivity and comparative advantage vis-à-vis the world market. These cash crops are main farm income sources in the LFAs and provide greater opportunities for off-farm work, which tend to impact significantly and positively on the nutritional status of children. These also may yet provide the only significant livelihood option for those who are left in the farms to earn a living since local non-farm opportunities are quite limited. It is important to highlight what could be addressed by policy in the short and medium-terms that will most likely improve food security especially of the poor farming households in the LFAs. In particular, I am referring to the need to improve the coordination and implementation of the food-based program on own-food production through home gardens to be integrated with the non-formal education program of women and men. The latter includes components of food-nutrient diversity, home gardening, primary health care, reproductive health, preparation of nutritious local food dishes, micro-enterprise livelihood, home management, and hygiene and sanitary practices. These comprise existing programs of the Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Agriculture, the BIDANI, and some local governments, but have not been fully implemented or well coordinated for various reasons. These programs address most of the factors, which were found to be highly significant and important, to improve nutritional status. Such programs can be initiated at the local levels and in collaboration with national initiatives where applicable.In relation to the food-based nutrient diversity approach, there is also the critical need to develop and integrate an RDE program in existing food crop improvement agenda of relevant research institutes aiming at improving the knowledge base of the nutrient content of food crops. Of the 80,000 species or so of plant sources of nutrients, only a very limited number are grown in own fields and gardens. Promoting the diversity of plant foods that can be produced in farms and gardens through improved food-nutrient information and nutrition campaign program have increasingly received attention in recent years as vehicles to alleviate poverty and food insecurity (Gari, 2004; Frison et al., 2006; Toledo and Burlingame, 2006).Further, the methodological issue that needs policy action is the coordination of the family income and expenditure survey (FIES) and the national nutrition survey (NNS) so that they can be more useful in a holistic food security assessment. The organizational structures to conduct the surveys are in place but may need modification in order to stratify for LFAs or otherwise, and ensure the consistency of the sampling design, the reference period, and the timing of surveys in order to apply the whole range of analysis in the production-consumption continuum. This can save a substantial amount of time, budget and effort in the development and implementation of food security targeted programs or projects at various levels.Table 11. Summary table of significant variables and policy optionsPolicy variablesPolicy option typeInitiation levelBiophysical environment and technologyIdle landTechnology, RDE infrastructurenational, localLand, soil qualityTechnology, land-use suitability assessment, RDE infrastructurenational, localCropping pattern, varietyTechnology, land-use suitability assessment, RDE infrastructurenational, localFertilizer useTechnology, regulatory, RDElocalIrrigationRegulatory, RDE infrastructurelocalSocio-economic environment, demographic and healthFarm livelihoods (LIVETYP2)Cash crop RDE (coconut, abaca, rootcrops, rice, vegetables)Food-based program (home gardens, own-food production), RDE in nutrient content of own-food produced and wild foods.Support services (capital, market)national, locallocalnational, localOff-farm livelihoods(LIVETYP3)Cash crop RDE (coconut, abaca)Trade and industry, regulatorynational, localnational, localNon-farm livelihoods (LIVETYP4)Technology, design, RDESupport services (capital, market, quality control)national, localnational, localDrinking water qualityUtility service/ infrastructurelocalMother’s educationWomen non-formal training program (food preparation, food-nutrient information, home gardens, home management)localNutrition knowledgeWomen non-formal trainingFood-nutrient RDE, education and information campaign (social marketing)national, localRemittancesSocial service (adult education/ training, savings mobilization, capital investment)national, localLand tenureAgrarian reform program review (with assessment of CARP)nationalHousehold sizeNumber of working childrenDependency ratioPopulation management (pro-active local implementing infrastructure)Non-formal education for women and men (reproductive health, home management and relations)

This study examines vegetable production and marketing among indigenous communities in northernPhilippinesusing an institutional economics approach. It develops a framework that analyses the four levels of institutions; Social Embededdness, Institutional Environment, Governance Structures and Resource Allocation alongside the Structure, Conduct and Performance of the vegetable sector. Using this integrated framework, the thesis engages on a range of topics from the structure of the sector to sales and margins, from trust to favoured-buyer systems and from transaction cost analysis to farmer's decision-making processes. Also, a framework that aligns efficient contract types with governance structures based on observable transaction attributes was developed. The modeling approach that determines how farmers choose trading partners based on farm and farmer characteristics, transaction attributes and social capital was likewise used.The first important finding of the study is that a dual structure - in terms of farm-size and total sales - exists in the province. On the one hand, several small farmers own small farm sizes and share a small percentage of total market sales. On the other hand, a few big farmers own big farms and share a big percentage of total market sales. Three governance structures dominate trade; the most common are commissioner-based followed by wholesaler and contractor-based organization. Another important finding of the research is that many farmers turn to wholesalers for loans because of difficulties accessing or complying with formal credit institutions. At harvest time the repayment scheme forces farmers into trading arrangements with wholesalers which in turn, lowers search, negotiation and enforcement costs. This locked-in effect reduces trading alternatives for farmers and lowers total transaction costs. Not surprisingly, wholesaler-based governance structure is the most efficient marketing arrangement from a transaction costs perspective. A third important finding of the thesis is that the social capital of farmers and traders in the province, aggregated from scores on trust, associatedness, common goals and optimism, is low. Current social capital is ineffective in facilitating market information exchange and providing countervailing power to farmers in selling crops. With regards to decision-making, the study showed that farmers with relatively higher social capital select traders differently from farmers with lower social capital. Moreover, ethnicity is a significant factor that influences trust, volunteerism and social networking as well as trading partner selection. This thesis shows that bringing in social elements such as social capital and culture in institutional economic analysis yields richer results in the explanation of behaviour of the market and its participants.

Food insecurity results from a web of problems involving human and non-human processes within certain environments. This thesis is both a methodological and a policy-oriented study. It explores the linkages in order to understand the food security situation in less favored areas (LFAs) in the Philippines. In the Philippines, food insecurity can be argued as most seriously felt in the LFAs which constitute about 65 percent of total agricultural land and where about 70 percent of the rural poor live. About 40 percent remain poor and food insecure in the rural areas. The two research villages (i.e. Alegre and Plaridel) in Leyte are representative of different types of LFAs: the flood-prone lowlands and the high risk eroded uplands and mountainous region in varied socio-economic settings. Methodological issues: fit, relevance and applicabilitySince food security is multi-faceted, the three dimensions of food availability, access and adequacy are addressed using a combination of formal surveys and qualitative tools (e.g. focussed group discussions, case studies, key informant interviews), which were so designed that they mutually enrich the investigation. The formal surveys (i.e. household production and socio-economic survey; food consumption, nutrition and health survey) are parallels to the existing national surveys regularly conducted (FIES, NNS), and were so selected to build on them in order to gain insights at improving their usefulness, particularly for the comprehensive assessment of food security. The various non-formal survey methods and tools were designed to give contextual information on the results of the statistical analyses (multi-variate analyses), and to qualify and enrich the interpretation of the significant variables that were identified in the regressions.This thesis attempts to treat the food insecurity issue among households in LFAs using the livelihood approach within the framework of the interrelationships between their biophysical and socio-economic environments. The variables used in the analyses also consisted of biophysical, socio-demographic and economic variables. The households in the LFAs are engaged in farming to a greater or lesser degree. Iit is therefore logical that the biophysical environment is the starting point of analysis. This was done in the agro-ecology and land-use ethno-histories, the case studies, the community surveys and in the elaboration of Hypothesis 1. The latter deals with productivity determinants of the major food and cash crops. It was hypothesized that the niggardliness of the biophysical resource, and other biophysical-related and socio-economic factors contributed to low farm productivity, and thus, pushed households to seek for other sources of income.Hypothesis 2 deals with the factors that most likely affect the households’ decision in composing their livelihood portfolio. Livelihoods are grouped into four types: same percentage distribution of income sources (LIVETYP1); farm income>50% (LIVETYP2); off-farm income>50% (LIVETYP3); non-farm income>50% (LIVETYP4), based on the income percentage criteria of the total full income of households obtained from these various income sources. This was found to be a useful classification because of the divergent trends found in LFAs, despite the similarities in cultivated crop (coconut, rice, rootcrops) and livelihood activities (farming, backyard piggery, domestic services, seasonal off-farm work, carpentry/construction). With this classification, it was found that one village counts more of the farming type of households (Alegre), and the other more the non-farm type of households (Plaridel). The regressions on Hypotheses 1 and 2 combined with the community surveys and case studies explained and qualified the differences in livelihood portfolios. Also, it was found that livelihood types do impact significantly on the choice and productivity of crop systems and the nutritional status of children. This thesis argues for the usefulness of the livelihood approach in exploring the linkages in food security analysis.In addition, the data and regression results built around hypotheses 1 and 2 provided insights in food availability and food access. Finally, food adequacy is dealt with in Hypothesis 3 which investigated the determinants of nutrient intake and nutritional status of children, the latter as proxy for health. Nutritional status was regressed on the livelihood types together with economic, socio-demographic and health-related variables. Coming full circle, the factors affecting nutritional status of children as well as their health conditions were identified.In methodological terms, the study attempts to provide a workable protocol for an integrative analysis of food security which can be applicable in development work (e.g. RDE programs and projects) or for policy purposes at local or national levels. This protocol is relevant and fitting particularly to the Philippine setting because of the recent moves to improve the local database of minimum basic data needs for food security assessments. The procedure and results of this study can be instructive and be tested, and further improved, in the current food security assessment initiatives by local government units with the assistance of the SUCs and research institutes. Research results: In this section, I will summarize the results and relevant policy concerns. But first, I will present a brief on the food security situation in the LFAs as gathered from the results of the ethno-histories, FGDs, case studies, community surveys and informal interviews in the research villages.Nature and man both played a role in the deterioration of the villages’ landscapes over time. Flood-prone Alegre is located along the typhoon path. The unregulated quarrying operations of the politics-backed businessmen and the deforestation of the bigger watershed of which the village is part, greatly contributed to the high risk of floods which can be triggered just by heavy rains. This means high risk of flooding for the rice farms, vegetable and rootcrop gardens, which contribute significantly to food and cash. This results in the erosion of capital which is usually sourced from the often usurious credit. With respect to farming, mainly upland Plaridel is no better, except for the fact that it has an additional cash crop, abaca, which provides added opportunities for off-farm wage work. Plaridel is also along the typhoon path, its hilly and mountainous farms exposed to wind and rain that cause erosions. Illegal logging by the influential and wealthy local businessmen has also contributed to the deterioration, and, in addition, has caused damage to the fish habitat leading to the disappearance of local fishing as an important livelihood. In both villages, farmers do not have the incentive for conservation farming. Farming income in general is not enough to feed and attend to the other basic needs of households. Both villages differ in many respects from each other and this led to differences in livelihood strategies and the food security situation. Plaridel is a bigger village in terms of non-farm (native craft industry, construction, trade) and off-farm opportunities (coconut and abaca) and is part of a more economically vigorous local economy, whereas Alegre has fewer non-farm (domestic service, local transport) and off-farm (smaller coconut and rice) activities. About 47 percent of households in Plaridel are depending mostly on non-farm incomes, and about 42 percent in Alegre mostly on farm incomes. The per capita income of Plaridel is about 0.90 USD and of Alegre 0.64 USD, both still below the WB poverty threshold of a dollar a day. In terms of income, households in these villages are poor. This below poverty threshold income presents serious limitations in terms of food access. Enough nutrient sources of food are available in the nearby town and village markets yet the households reported being food deficit two to three months a year during the off-harvest season when cash is also very low. Food access is the more limiting factor. Food habits are part of culture. Partly because of cultural factors and partly because of the village terrain and proximity of fields, Alegre households tend to have vegetable gardens more than in Plaridel, though quite limited in diversity. The use of the nutritious taro and sweetpotato leaves and petioles, and the preparation of many dishes with fresh coconut milk are very much a part of the Waray-waray food culture. Despite the relatively lower per capita income than Plaridel, Alegre household members turned out to have better nutrient adequacy for all nutrients tested and for all age groups. This could also be because Alegre mothers had more time for home and child care (associated with farm and off-farm type households) than Plaridel mothers (non-farm type households). The statistical regressions showed the high significance and importance of off-farm type households as positively affecting the nutritional status of children via the associated intensity of time allocation for home and child care. Though still below national averages, Alegre households are better off in nutrient adequacy for all nutrients than the better-income households in Plaridel. This allows for the conclusion that a higher income level per se is not an assurance of nutrient adequacy. Further, the home garden argument implies that improving the availability of nutrient sources from the home gardens provides opportunity for food and nutrient adequacy improvements especially among the poor households whose income levels will really take time, if at all, to adequately improve.The village government of Plaridel was able to adequately provide for quality drinking water from three spring water sources in the mountains, while potable drinking water in Alegre was accessed outside the village due to poor quality of its groundwater. Plaridel has better school and health facilities than Alegre, where households are served by one school only and have some access to health services. There were more sources of credit in Plaridel, including the Church-organized cooperative for home industry and consumption uses, while Alegre households had to contend with the usurious local moneylenders, except for one or two farmers who accessed credit from the Rural Bank in town. Plaridel has relatively more traders who are also financiers of farm capital, i.e. seed, fertilizers or wage payment. Comparatively, Plaridel has more in terms of economic opportunities and support services, while Alegre has more of economic constraints. The economic gains however have not been translated in terms of nutritional status.All these basic data provide strongly for the argument that the significant and important factors that contribute to food security are not only economic in nature. Economic factors such as income and food budget are necessary but not sufficient conditions for food security.Among poor households, labour is the most important resource. Labour as a variable, is a special case, and I will treat it as quasi-economic and quasi-social because it has both an economic and a social value. The latter simply means that the consideration for labour use decision is not only for monetary aims but also for non-monetary rewards or benefits. This is especially true with regard to a mother’s or a wife’s use of labour time. In households where women play a dual role as both producer and consumer, valuation of labour is subjective because there is no ‘real market’ for own use of time partly because of social norms. This has an important bearing particularly in labour substitution between wage and domestic work.The hard evidence: in reply to the queriesThe main research question that this thesis deals with is: “How do the livelihoods of farming households impact on their food security in a context of ecologically fragile environments?” The explanations of the variables or factors from the interrelationship between hypotheses 1 and 2, and between hypotheses 2 and 3 clarify the answer to this question.It is clear at the outset that farming households in the LFAs are on average poor and engaged in diverse activities to make ends meet. In this study, the households are classified based on the percentage contribution of income from three groups of activities (farm, off-farm, non-farm). The ‘livelihood typology’ is used as a proxy for resource-use strategies. Households face difficult choices in allocating their two most important resources, labour and time, with very meagre contribution of other inputs, because of constraints and limited opportunities.The livelihoods of farming households in less favoured areas are affected by the interplay of biophysical and socio-economic factors. These factors have differential impact on the different livelihood types because of the availability and competing use of labour of adult working members, the household size, the size of cultivated farm, value of farm produce, and the existence of idle lands. From direct observation and interviews it bacame apparent that idle land is the catch-all variable for poor quality land and/or the lack of capital to make use of technology and other inputs.It will be noted that the final indicator of food security is that of nutrition adequacy, the latter of which is indicated by nutrient adequacy of the individual household members and nutritional status of children. In the final analysis, the nutritional status of children, especially those under five, is highly significantly and positively affected when households income is obtained more from off-farm activities (LIVETYP3), and positively when more income comes from non-farm activities (LIVETYP4), and negatively when income is more from farming activities (LIVETYP2). The evidence for the latter two, however, is not conclusive.Hypothesis 1: low farm productivity and multi-livelihoodsHow does the situation in ecologically less favoured areas affect the choice and generation of livelihoods?The first hypothesis has addressed this query by investigating the effect of the biophysical and socio-economic environments on farm productivity. Households have stopped depending only on their farms for sustenance because of low farm productivity and low farm incomes. They maintain a dual or multi-activity livelihood portfolio because farming alone cannot provide adequately, even for their most basic needs. Households usually combine farming with other sources of income: in farm wage work (coconut, rice, and abaca) and/or non-farm employment (native craft, peddling, domestic service). The biophysical and related factors found to have highly significant effects on crop productivity include the season, fertilizer use, irrigation water and soil type for rice, terrain and variety for sweetpotato, cropping pattern for abaca; and idle land, indirectly, via livelihood choice (LIVETYP4) for coconut and rice. The higher the incidence of idle lands, the greater the tendency for households to engage in non-farm employment, and the more non-productive the farms are due to labour shifts away from them. Poor land quality with less or no capital and technology inputs to start with, results in low farm productivity. The socio-economic variables that have significant impact on farm productivity are: non-farm income, share tenancy, remittances, and dependency ratio for abaca, wage rate, production cost, farming experience for rice and coconut, age of farmer for sweetpotato, and livelihood type for coconut, abaca and rice. It is important to note that the cash crops abaca, coconut and rice are more sensitive to livelihood types especially the non-farm (LIVETYP4) and off-farm (LIVETYP3) livelihood types. The negative relation implies a labour substitution effect (coconut, abaca) and the positive relation implies the capital plough-back effect (rice). Higher wage rate will have a greater likelihood of reducing rice yield due to labour shifts into more lucrative non-farm work, but not with coconut and abaca because these are the main cash crops. Similarly, the effects of the off-farm income and non-farm income variables depend on relative labour shifts away from coconut farms, and the capital plough-back in abaca farms, respectively. The higher the dependency ratio the more likely farmers intensify the use of resources for abaca farming because it is the more cash-earning crop, with a stable market and better prices. The more remittances a household has the more negative the impact on abaca production due to distance-induced inertia because the abaca fields are located three kilometres or more to the mountains. Share tenancy is significant but not a negative issue, especially with abaca and rice, because what is more relevant is the use-right of the land without the burden of tax (which goes with ownership). Working on the land for generations has generated family loyalty sealed with mutual benefits. Share tenancy, however, tends to negatively impact on coconut productivity because of labour shifts, which are likely due to the more diffused labour use among coconut farmers who are engaged more in off-farm and non-farm activities.These differential effects on the various crops show that crops respond differently to various factors, and this factor-specificity has important policy implications for targeting intervention options for productivity improvement.Hypothesis 2: the livelihood portfolio – choices and dimensionsFrom Hypothesis 1, it is concluded that farming households have a diversified livelihood portfolio because low productivity and low incomes from farming cannot sustain their lives. In summary, livelihood type has high significant correlations with the variables farm wage worker (+), age of household head (+), size of cultivated area (-), actual household size (-), value of farm produce (+), number of working children (+/-). The evidence on the life cycle variable is not conclusive. Generally, the behaviour of the relationships shows labour shifts from one type of activity to another mainly because of household size, labour supply within household, the area and productivity of the farm.The inclusion of the dimensions on assets and resources, sex, age, and life course was based on their assumed importance in the process of decision-making for the livelihood portfolio. In Hypothesis 2, these are included as independent variables in the multivariate regressions for the livelihood types, and sought to address the basic question of what determines the households’ livelihood portfolio. Livelihood type one (LIVETYP1), the control, refers to household livelihood strategies which result in more or less equal distribution of income earnings from farm, off-farm and non-farm sources; livelihood type two (LIVETYP2), where the share of farm income is greater than 50 percent; livelihood type three (LIVETYP3), when off-farm income is greater than 50 percent; and livelihood type 4 (LIVETYP4), when non-farm income is greater than 50 percent. The non-farm livelihood type household tends to be highly significantly and positively related with idle land. There is a significant and negative relation with actual household size. This clearly shows the movement towards more non-farm employment when land becomes less productive, or with the lack of inputs or incentive to till the soil. A smaller household size means that one or two spouses can have more labour time shifted from domestic to non-farm work. This variable is highly significant for off-farm livelihood type. Farm wage worker is highly significantly and positively related with both farm and off-farm based livelihood types. But with more working members, household labour will likely be shifted to off-farm work. Although not conclusive, life cycle tends to have a negative relationship with the off-farm livelihood type, since the earlier in the life cycle with no child, the more labour time available for off-farm work. The value of farm produce is highly significant and positively related with farm livelihood type, showing that households will greatly rely on farm income if its value is high. This is a variable that captures relatively good land, better yield, and better market. Also the bigger the farm land cultivated, the more likely the negative impact on off-farm livelihood type because this would mean greater labour requirement on farm, and thus, less labour available for off-farm work.The role of gender is critical in terms of type of labour available and employment opportunity. Male labour is usually employed in off-farm activity of cash crops such as coconut and abaca, and female labour mostly for non-farm employment like native crafts and domestic services. Household size affects labour supply, especially of women since their labour use on domestic chores is high. Hence, a bigger household size tends to negatively impact on their availability for off-farm (in rice) and non-farm work.Hypothesis 3: nutrient adequacy and nutritional statusFollowing through the series of relations and results, the final answer to the main question is provided in this section on the food adequacy situation. On the whole, nutrient adequacy and nutritional status of households and individuals in the LFAs, as represented by the research villages, are far below the national averages.The study found no significant differences in the nutrient adequacy levels between age and sex groups, except a better-off picture of adequacy for all nutrients among children below 5 years of age. Overall, the energy adequacy level is only about 50 percent, which has serious implications for the growth of children and health of adults. Children under 5 and adults tend to have better nutrient adequacy, but children under 5 are critically deficient in Vitamin A, C, riboflavin and calories. The males, the children and adults tend to be more adequate in protein than the teenagers and the females. Also, there were no significant differences in the nutrient fair-share ratio by sex or age which indicates a fairly equitable distribution of nutrients within the household. However, there was a slight positive bias for all nutrients in favour of children below 5 years old, and women tend to be slightly favoured with calcium, vitamin C and thiamine. This reflects priority given to the very young and mother’s nutrient needs. Despite the lower average per capita income in Alegre, it showed better adequacy levels than Plaridel for all nutrients. Obviously, not because of the income factor but for a mix of reasons: there were more home gardens in Alegre, resulting in a more nutritious diet in the area, and more mother home care time as gleaned from their livelihood patterns. Nutrient intake is the major determinant for nutritional status. This implies that nutritional status is significantly dependent on variables affecting nutrient intake, such as the food budget, time allocated for home care, mother’s or caregiver’s education, the availability of non-bought food (own-production, given), household size, age and sex of the individual. There are differential impacts of each of these variables on specific nutrients based on the sensitivity of the nutrient to each of the above variables. Thus, a greater probability that households and individuals in less favoured areas will have higher nutritional status when the food budget is improved, when mothers are better educated to take care of the home and its food needs, when household size is planned to a reasonable minimum, and when food is available from non-bought sources. As the food budget includes both bought and non-bought food, the food budget can be improved not only by improving income but also by intensifying the home production of nutrient-rich food crops. The separate regressions for nutritional status, using the weight-for-age of children as dependent variable, found as highly significant such variables as drinking water quality, education of mother, total farm full income, livelihood type, and short-term morbidity. Hygiene was significant particularly for children less than 5 years. Nutrient knowledge per se was not found significant in the individual nutrient intake regressions, but was found highly significant and positive with the nutritional status of school age children. Livelihood types matter in nutritional status via labour and time allocation and food priority effects. The off-farm livelihood type (LIVETYP3) was found highly significant and positively affecting the pre-schoolers’ health, most probably because of time allocation effects when the mother has more home care time with the child when the father is away for off-farm work. Though not conclusive, the farming livelihood type (LIVETYP2) variable is negatively related with health of schoolchildren, and the non-farming livelihood type (LIVETYP4) variable is positively related with the pre-schoolers’ health via time allocation effects and priority to the very young with additional food from improved food budget, respectively. Total farm full income includes all produce of the farm that are sold and those consumed in the home. This variable is highly significantly and positively related with health of children under 5, yet significantly and negatively with school children’s health. This again highlights the contribution of non-traded or home-grown food and nutrient sources since the income variable per se has no evidence of significance. More significant is the trade-off between food, care and goods in favour of the pre-schoolers. These further confirm how pressing the food and income constraints are among the poor households that this trade-off is biased against the school children. With pre-school children, short-term morbidity is highly significant and important as they are more sensitive and prone to contracting illness of whatever kind. Hygiene practices are a significant factor in the health of pre-schoolers, but not with primary schoolchildren. This implies the relative sensitivity of children under 5 to hygienic practices and conditions. There is no conclusive evidence for garbage disposal. Firming up policy optionsTable 11 presents the summary of policy actions necessary to address the significant and important variables identified in this study. The initiation level indicates where policy can originate. National refers to the national agency or relevant research, development and extension institute (RDE), and local refers to provincial, municipal or village governments. The indication of both national and local implies strong coordination with the relevant national agency or research institute and local government unit. Effective implementation presupposes good governance, cost-sharing for cost effectiveness, good human and non-human resources management, and collaboration and partnership with non-government organizations and community-based organizations present in the respective areas.Given the results of this study, significant policy concerns can be drawn and need to be addressed in order to respond to the persistent food insecurity in LFAs. But there are major over-arching concerns that must be considered in drawing out policy options: the continued deterioration of the biophysical environment (watershed management, resource conservation), the movement away from the farm in livelihood pursuits and the increasing role of non-farm employment, a rationalized RDE in agriculture, and agrarian reform. Land suitability should be an integral part of agriculture RDE, both at the national and local levels. These concerns will need a longer time perspective, a broader scope of policy action, and concerted efforts in order to effectively help poor households, especially in the targeted LFAs. Addressing these concerns will help provide both the necessary and sufficient conditions for the policy actions, herein summarized, to have impact on the significant variables (biophysical factors, land tenure, non-farm livelihood, remittances). There is need for a review and assessment of the planned and implemented programs related to these concerns. In the medium and long runs, the RDE programs for cash and export crops, like coconut and abaca, need special attention in order to improve their productivity and comparative advantage vis-à-vis the world market. These cash crops are main farm income sources in the LFAs and provide greater opportunities for off-farm work, which tend to impact significantly and positively on the nutritional status of children. These also may yet provide the only significant livelihood option for those who are left in the farms to earn a living since local non-farm opportunities are quite limited. It is important to highlight what could be addressed by policy in the short and medium-terms that will most likely improve food security especially of the poor farming households in the LFAs. In particular, I am referring to the need to improve the coordination and implementation of the food-based program on own-food production through home gardens to be integrated with the non-formal education program of women and men. The latter includes components of food-nutrient diversity, home gardening, primary health care, reproductive health, preparation of nutritious local food dishes, micro-enterprise livelihood, home management, and hygiene and sanitary practices. These comprise existing programs of the Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Agriculture, the BIDANI, and some local governments, but have not been fully implemented or well coordinated for various reasons. These programs address most of the factors, which were found to be highly significant and important, to improve nutritional status. Such programs can be initiated at the local levels and in collaboration with national initiatives where applicable.In relation to the food-based nutrient diversity approach, there is also the critical need to develop and integrate an RDE program in existing food crop improvement agenda of relevant research institutes aiming at improving the knowledge base of the nutrient content of food crops. Of the 80,000 species or so of plant sources of nutrients, only a very limited number are grown in own fields and gardens. Promoting the diversity of plant foods that can be produced in farms and gardens through improved food-nutrient information and nutrition campaign program have increasingly received attention in recent years as vehicles to alleviate poverty and food insecurity (Gari, 2004; Frison et al., 2006; Toledo and Burlingame, 2006).Further, the methodological issue that needs policy action is the coordination of the family income and expenditure survey (FIES) and the national nutrition survey (NNS) so that they can be more useful in a holistic food security assessment. The organizational structures to conduct the surveys are in place but may need modification in order to stratify for LFAs or otherwise, and ensure the consistency of the sampling design, the reference period, and the timing of surveys in order to apply the whole range of analysis in the production-consumption continuum. This can save a substantial amount of time, budget and effort in the development and implementation of food security targeted programs or projects at various levels.Table 11. Summary table of significant variables and policy optionsPolicy variablesPolicy option typeInitiation levelBiophysical environment and technologyIdle landTechnology, RDE infrastructurenational, localLand, soil qualityTechnology, land-use suitability assessment, RDE infrastructurenational, localCropping pattern, varietyTechnology, land-use suitability assessment, RDE infrastructurenational, localFertilizer useTechnology, regulatory, RDElocalIrrigationRegulatory, RDE infrastructurelocalSocio-economic environment, demographic and healthFarm livelihoods (LIVETYP2)Cash crop RDE (coconut, abaca, rootcrops, rice, vegetables)Food-based program (home gardens, own-food production), RDE in nutrient content of own-food produced and wild foods.Support services (capital, market)national, locallocalnational, localOff-farm livelihoods(LIVETYP3)Cash crop RDE (coconut, abaca)Trade and industry, regulatorynational, localnational, localNon-farm livelihoods (LIVETYP4)Technology, design, RDESupport services (capital, market, quality control)national, localnational, localDrinking water qualityUtility service/ infrastructurelocalMother’s educationWomen non-formal training program (food preparation, food-nutrient information, home gardens, home management)localNutrition knowledgeWomen non-formal trainingFood-nutrient RDE, education and information campaign (social marketing)national, localRemittancesSocial service (adult education/ training, savings mobilization, capital investment)national, localLand tenureAgrarian reform program review (with assessment of CARP)nationalHousehold sizeNumber of working childrenDependency ratioPopulation management (pro-active local implementing infrastructure)Non-formal education for women and men (reproductive health, home management and relations)

This study examines vegetable production and marketing among indigenous communities in northernPhilippinesusing an institutional economics approach. It develops a framework that analyses the four levels of institutions; Social Embededdness, Institutional Environment, Governance Structures and Resource Allocation alongside the Structure, Conduct and Performance of the vegetable sector. Using this integrated framework, the thesis engages on a range of topics from the structure of the sector to sales and margins, from trust to favoured-buyer systems and from transaction cost analysis to farmer's decision-making processes. Also, a framework that aligns efficient contract types with governance structures based on observable transaction attributes was developed. The modeling approach that determines how farmers choose trading partners based on farm and farmer characteristics, transaction attributes and social capital was likewise used.The first important finding of the study is that a dual structure - in terms of farm-size and total sales - exists in the province. On the one hand, several small farmers own small farm sizes and share a small percentage of total market sales. On the other hand, a few big farmers own big farms and share a big percentage of total market sales. Three governance structures dominate trade; the most common are commissioner-based followed by wholesaler and contractor-based organization. Another important finding of the research is that many farmers turn to wholesalers for loans because of difficulties accessing or complying with formal credit institutions. At harvest time the repayment scheme forces farmers into trading arrangements with wholesalers which in turn, lowers search, negotiation and enforcement costs. This locked-in effect reduces trading alternatives for farmers and lowers total transaction costs. Not surprisingly, wholesaler-based governance structure is the most efficient marketing arrangement from a transaction costs perspective. A third important finding of the thesis is that the social capital of farmers and traders in the province, aggregated from scores on trust, associatedness, common goals and optimism, is low. Current social capital is ineffective in facilitating market information exchange and providing countervailing power to farmers in selling crops. With regards to decision-making, the study showed that farmers with relatively higher social capital select traders differently from farmers with lower social capital. Moreover, ethnicity is a significant factor that influences trust, volunteerism and social networking as well as trading partner selection. This thesis shows that bringing in social elements such as social capital and culture in institutional economic analysis yields richer results in the explanation of behaviour of the market and its participants.

Pressures on the natural resources, especially land and water, continue to increase as a result of an ever-increasing world population and continuing economic growth. These pressures originate from the many claims of stakeholders at different scales on the limited resources, and are aggravated by their different and often conflicting goals. Discussions on alternative resource uses, prioritizing different goals, and formulation and implementation of land use policies would greatly benefit from a quantitative assessment of the economic, social and environmental benefits and costs associated with the alternatives. In this study, a multi-scale and model-based approach was developed and applied in support of joint-learning, policy discussions and decision-making with respect to agricultural land use. The methodology was operationalized, in consultation with stakeholders, for the province of Ilocos Norte in the northwest of the Philippines, and its most populous municipality, Batac.Six optimization models with different specifications were developed for different spatial scales: one for the farm, four for the municipal and one for the provincial scale. Results of the farm household analysis show the comparative attractiveness of alternative agricultural technologies, although adoption behaviour with respect to these technologies is different for poor, average and better-off households. The provincial analysis provides a quantitative assessment of the trade-off involved in prioritizing economic goals over social goals of food self-sufficiency and increased employment in agriculture. Results of the municipal analysis show that limited markets, inadequate infrastructure and resource endowments of farm households strongly affect resource use and goal achievement in Batac. As the effects of these factors in the model are significant, ignoring them may result in misleading simulation results and, hence, policy conclusions.The multi-scale approach was used to quantify the effects of agricultural policies pertaining to attainment of food self-sufficiency goals, liberalization of rice prices, infrastructure improvements and volumetric water pricing on income, food production, resource use, and environmental indicators at the farm, municipal and provincial scales. Food self-sufficiency goals can be achieved but conflict with economic objectives. Liberalization of rice prices results in lower income for farmers but benefits rice consumers as a result of lower rice prices. Irrigation improvements can contribute to increased rice production, however, at the expense of income. Similarly, volumetric water pricing can result in more efficient water use at the farm and municipal scale, but at the expense of income in the short-run. Many of these results seem trivial, but the model-based analyses result in quantitative estimates for the effects on the economic, agricultural and environmental dimensions of the problem.It is anticipated that model-based analyses has a potential to play a key role in participatory land use policy formulation. Results from the multi-scale approach presented in this thesis can provide valuable information for policy development and assessment. This may enhance transparent discussions among stakeholders on the implications of various objectives and priorities at different scales for resource use. This also allows ex-ante analysis of agricultural and natural resource use policies, including assessment of the potentials of new agro-technologies.Keywords: Linear programming; Natural resource use; Policy analysis; Farm household modelling; Regional modelling; Philippines

This publication is based on the experiences gained in farmer field schools held in Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines, and on the collective inputs of many contributors, including from the CBDC programme and BUCAP project. In particular, staff and farmer-breeders of PEDIGREA partners Srer Khmer, Field Indonesia, PPRDI, and Wageningen UR (CGN and LEI) provided major inputs.

This publication is based on the experiences gained in farmer field schools held in Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines, and on the collective inputs of many contributors, including from the CBDC programme and BUCAP project. In particular, staff and farmer-breeders of PEDIGREA partners Srer Khmer, Field Indonesia, PPRDI, and Wageningen UR (CGN and LEI) provided major inputs.

Pressures on the natural resources, especially land and water, continue to increase as a result of an ever-increasing world population and continuing economic growth. These pressures originate from the many claims of stakeholders at different scales on the limited resources, and are aggravated by their different and often conflicting goals. Discussions on alternative resource uses, prioritizing different goals, and formulation and implementation of land use policies would greatly benefit from a quantitative assessment of the economic, social and environmental benefits and costs associated with the alternatives. In this study, a multi-scale and model-based approach was developed and applied in support of joint-learning, policy discussions and decision-making with respect to agricultural land use. The methodology was operationalized, in consultation with stakeholders, for the province of Ilocos Norte in the northwest of the Philippines, and its most populous municipality, Batac.Six optimization models with different specifications were developed for different spatial scales: one for the farm, four for the municipal and one for the provincial scale. Results of the farm household analysis show the comparative attractiveness of alternative agricultural technologies, although adoption behaviour with respect to these technologies is different for poor, average and better-off households. The provincial analysis provides a quantitative assessment of the trade-off involved in prioritizing economic goals over social goals of food self-sufficiency and increased employment in agriculture. Results of the municipal analysis show that limited markets, inadequate infrastructure and resource endowments of farm households strongly affect resource use and goal achievement in Batac. As the effects of these factors in the model are significant, ignoring them may result in misleading simulation results and, hence, policy conclusions.The multi-scale approach was used to quantify the effects of agricultural policies pertaining to attainment of food self-sufficiency goals, liberalization of rice prices, infrastructure improvements and volumetric water pricing on income, food production, resource use, and environmental indicators at the farm, municipal and provincial scales. Food self-sufficiency goals can be achieved but conflict with economic objectives. Liberalization of rice prices results in lower income for farmers but benefits rice consumers as a result of lower rice prices. Irrigation improvements can contribute to increased rice production, however, at the expense of income. Similarly, volumetric water pricing can result in more efficient water use at the farm and municipal scale, but at the expense of income in the short-run. Many of these results seem trivial, but the model-based analyses result in quantitative estimates for the effects on the economic, agricultural and environmental dimensions of the problem.It is anticipated that model-based analyses has a potential to play a key role in participatory land use policy formulation. Results from the multi-scale approach presented in this thesis can provide valuable information for policy development and assessment. This may enhance transparent discussions among stakeholders on the implications of various objectives and priorities at different scales for resource use. This also allows ex-ante analysis of agricultural and natural resource use policies, including assessment of the potentials of new agro-technologies.Keywords: Linear programming; Natural resource use; Policy analysis; Farm household modelling; Regional modelling; Philippines

Philippinesis endowed with many natural resources but it is also confronted with a climate that annually poses threats to livelihood, food and nutrition security of its populace. High incidence of poverty and a great variation in agro-ecological setting influence food production as well as economic conditions continue to affect the country's food and nutrition security. The seasonal pattern of rainfall causes fluctuations in aspects of life, such as seasonal labor needs in agriculture and fishery, fluctuations in food security and variations in nutritional status. The present study was carried out in two different ecological settings: a lowland area inCentral Luzonand a coastal area on theislandofLeyte(Visayas).This study was aimed at examining the factors influencing food and nutrition security at the household and individual level and establish the magnitude of food and nutrition insecurity. In this study, child malnutrition was placed in the context of the food security situation and livelihood performance of households with pre-school children. While putting the child malnutrition issues in the wider context of food and livelihood security, a number of research questions were raised and answered in the different chapters.The first research question dealt with the factors influencing household food security and child malnutrition. Food insecurity and child malnutrition are quite common in both areas but the relationship between the two differs according to ecological setting, which in turn is differentiated by sources of income, living conditions, ownership of assets, and habitual diet. This study reveals that in wage-earning households in the lowland area, child malnutrition is less related to income and food availability than among households in the coastal area, where food and nutrition security more or less coincide. Above the food security threshold, care and morbidity are the limiting factors to nutrition security of households. This implies that while livelihood security is a pre-condition to food security, the presence of both does not always lead to better quality diets of children. Livelihood security may coincide with food security but the two do not automatically result in nutrition security in the population studied. The absence of an association of food security indicators with malnutrition suggests that different processes operate for food security and nutrition security. The relation between income and food security is context- and location-specific, with livelihood strategies as intervening variables.In this study, there appeared to be a clear difference in the evolution and type of malnutrition between the lowland and coastal area. Biological adjustments in the growth of children were noted. In the lowland area, children are short but have adequate weight-for-height, while in the coastal areas, aside from being stunted, preschool children are also wasted. These findings suggest that in the lowland area, the direct determinants of child malnutrition, which include breastfeeding, complementary food, morbidity and care, are more important than household food security. In the coastal area, high prevalence of wasting points to more prominence of food insecurity as an important determinant of child malnutrition.The second research question focused on people's ideas about food security. There are gender differences in men and women's ideas of food security. Because of their traditional role as breadwinner, men view food security in terms of stable income (livelihood) and food supply. They consider food security as being part and parcel of livelihood security. Women have broader perspective of food security. Traditionally, women are the homemakers. Their ideas of food security hinge on food sufficiency through proper management of the household's scarce resources.The third research question dealt with the qualitative changes in dietary pattern and sources of food as indicators of seasonal changes in household food security. Rice is the only staple food throughout the year in the lowland villages, while - in different proportions by season - rice and corn are eaten in the coastal area. The period of relative abundance in the lowland area as well as in the coastal area falls in the dry season. This is reflected in the lowest prevalence of food shortage in both areas during this period. However, coastal villages experience a longer period of scarcity (five months) than lowland villages (three months). While only fifty percent of households reported periodical food shortages, in general, the habitual diets were of poor quality, irrespective of the season.Research question four focused on the coping behavior of households in the two study areas. In both areas, households use a number of strategies and coping mechanisms to prevent seasonal food stress and meet actual food needs. Actions intended to solve the problem of food security in the long-term include income diversification and mobilization of assets to prevent an impending food crisis. However, my study revealed that diversifying economic activities and/or seeking new ways of livelihood generation have potential only when skills as well as jobs and other resources are available and accessible to the households.Aside from preventive strategies, several adaptive or coping mechanisms were observed. These include: mortgaging, inter-household transfers, barter, altering food preparation, cutting down on the number of meals, gathering wild foods, and - to some extent - postponing expenditures on health. Apparently, there are differences in coping strategies used by men and women, which can be attributed to their culturally determined different roles in the household. Women are highly visible in activities to meet actual food needs, while men generally dominate in income diversification and resource mobilization activities. The research shows that in both areas type, timing and sequence of actions and strategies of men and women vary according to the conditions and the degree of vulnerability that characterize the household at the start of the food crisis.Research question five dealt with gender issues. Power relations in decision-making on resource allocation and in productive and reproductive activities of men and women were examined. In both areas, men make more decisions than women. Men, being the head of the household, decide on matters related to investments and livelihood. As part of their reproductive role, women decide on matters concerning care and management and allocation of resources related to food procurement, preparation, distribution, and consumption. The study notes that in times of economic hardship and food crisis, women carry out specific coping activities. However, there appears to be a shift in the division of tasks between men and women, when the workload is high and women have to combine reproductive activities and working for the market. Then, men sometimes take over part of the reproductive workload of their wife. Nevertheless, findings suggest that indeed there are unequal distribution of roles and unequal division of labor between the male and female.The sixth research question focused on the role of the BIDANI program in improving livelihood, food and nutrition security. BIDANI is the acronym of Barangay Integrated Development Approach for Nutrition Improvement. It is a nation-wide extension program working through a network of state universities and colleges. As a program and a strategy BIDANI can serve as a catalyst to enhance the capability and capacity of the different stakeholders to address food problems. The comprehensive and "bottom-up" approach of BIDANI is important for enhancing local livelihood, food and nutrition security. This study shows, however, that the linkages between the three types of security cannot be taken for granted; that the one does not automatically lead to the other.BIDANI can contribute to decreasing malnutrition prevalence in real life situations. Its various intervention and development projects, including micro-credit, can produce synergistic impacts that improve nutrition. The women's income-generation activities can serve as useful vehicle for the diversification of the livelihood portfolio of the target households, which can have favorable effects on the coping ability of household. However, there are structural factors underlying the lack of livelihood security, as is apparent from the differences between the situation in the lowland and coastal villages, that for BIDANI are difficult to address. Looking at alternatives, integrated development based on the primary sector (agriculture and fishery) must be complemented by employment opportunities in other sectors to reduce poverty. Off-farm employment and the generation of jobs are a challenge for local governments and BIDANI. Being a dynamic program, BIDANI can adjust its focus to incorporate more systematically issues concerning employment and income, family size, and women's reproductive rights and health.

Increasing demand for rice and decreasing water diversions to agriculture, urge for higher water productivity in rice production systems. One way to deal with this challenge is using water-saving regimes on field scale. The main objective of this study was to quantify the effects of water-saving regimes on water productivity, nitrogen use efficiency, and yield by a combined experimental and modeling approach. The role of subsurface hydrology was studied to assess the effects of water saving on the water balance.Field experiments were conducted at three locations: Muñoz and Los Baños in thePhilippinesand Tuanlin inChina. In experiments comparing alternate submerged-nonsubmerged (SNS) regimes¾soils remained dry for several days before re-irrigation¾with continuous submergence (CS), apparent nitrogen recovery and yield were at par and 15-18% of irrigation water could be saved thus leading to higher water productivity. Nitrogen supply plays a key role in enhancing water productivity because nitrogen promotes leaf area growth, biomass growth, and yield and reduces evaporative losses.In most of our experiments, the groundwater table depth was shallow (

Increasing demand for rice and decreasing water diversions to agriculture, urge for higher water productivity in rice production systems. One way to deal with this challenge is using water-saving regimes on field scale. The main objective of this study was to quantify the effects of water-saving regimes on water productivity, nitrogen use efficiency, and yield by a combined experimental and modeling approach. The role of subsurface hydrology was studied to assess the effects of water saving on the water balance.Field experiments were conducted at three locations: Muñoz and Los Baños in thePhilippinesand Tuanlin inChina. In experiments comparing alternate submerged-nonsubmerged (SNS) regimes¾soils remained dry for several days before re-irrigation¾with continuous submergence (CS), apparent nitrogen recovery and yield were at par and 15-18% of irrigation water could be saved thus leading to higher water productivity. Nitrogen supply plays a key role in enhancing water productivity because nitrogen promotes leaf area growth, biomass growth, and yield and reduces evaporative losses.In most of our experiments, the groundwater table depth was shallow (