Permaculture in the Philippines: Landscape Structure, Practices, and Perspectives (Full Text Download)

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Agricultural landscapes are designed to maximize land area and increase crop yield to ensure food security for the world’s growing population. Consequently, the long-term effects of conventional methods of agriculture are destructive to natural ecosystems and landscapes. The main goal of this study was to look into the concept of permaculture in the Philippines—its practitioners and network, unique landscape structure, and current perspectives--and determine how food security in the household can be addressed without compromising the state of the natural environment. A social network analysis produced data on linkages within the local practitioner network and fieldwork in twelve selected permaculture sites provided data on landscape structure of farms, food consumption behavior of households, and prevailing perspectives of permaculture using mixed methods including farm inventory, crop diversity survey, aerial photography, geographic information systems mapping and network analysis, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, video blog documentation, and self-assessed measure of food security survey. The findings of the study revealed a network of 204 practitioners from Luzon (63%), Visayas (19%) and Mindanao (13%), that has the potential to grow and be influential in Philippine agriculture in the next decade. Secondly, results pointed out that permaculture farms exhibited a classic permaculture landscape zoning pattern: Zone 0-house, Zone 1-garden, Zone 2-grazing, Zone 3-cash crops, Zone 4-food forest and Zone 5-wilderness, containing a network of interrelated components designed for sustainable household food security. And thirdly, three evolving perspectives of permaculture among practitioners, were elicited and documented: 1) ‘ecological’ perspective, an ecocentric view, found to be the most commonly shared one among practitioners, 2) ‘socio-cultural’ perspective emphasizing sustainable lifestyles and 3) ‘agricultural’ perspectives highlighting sustainable food production. This research effort hopes to encourage more scientific inquiry on the subject matter for years to come. Current perspectives can be used as bases to recommend the necessary resources, technologies, and policies to help permaculture systems achieve its desired objectives.