Intensive agriculture in the fragile uplands is observed to cause
environmental damage. In the long run, this might jeopardize the
resource base and ultimately the capacity of upland households to maintain
self-sufficiency in food supplies. There are, in general, two ways to
influence farmers’ use of natural resources: direct interventions aimed at
altering behavior, and indirect interventions, such as through prices,
aimed at altering factors that influence farm decisions. In the Philippines,
the most common mitigating measure for seemingly unsustainable
upland agricultural practices is the direct approach, especially the
introduction of soil-conserving methods through extension and farmer
education. For example, the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA)
introduced Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT), which is a
package of soil management measures for sloping lands, in the early 1980s
to combat soil erosion and land degradation in uplands. However, while
there is some adoption of conservation measures such as hedgerows in
high-intensity extension projects, there is little evidence of widespread
farmer interest in SALT (Garrity et al. 1993).