IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v15y2025i3p246-d1574881.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Balancing Tradition and Innovation: The Role of Environmental Conservation Agriculture in the Sustainability of the Ifugao Rice Terraces

Author

Listed:
  • Keshav Lall Maharjan

    (International Economic Development Program, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 739-8529, Japan)

  • Clarisse Mendoza Gonzalvo

    (Department of Educational Communication, College of Development Communication, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Laguna 4031, Philippines
    Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Center, Ifugao State University, Nayon, Lamut 3605, Philippines)

  • Jude Cadingpal Baggo

    (Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Center, Ifugao State University, Nayon, Lamut 3605, Philippines)

Abstract

This study investigates the continuation of Environmental Conservation Agriculture (ECA) practices among farmers in the Ifugao Rice Terraces, a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) in the Philippines. Through a cross-sectional survey of ECA farmers in the municipality of Banaue, this research explores the socio-demographic, environmental, and economic factors influencing the adoption and persistence of ECA. The findings reveal that while access to resources such as high-yielding seeds, modern farming equipment, and financial support is important for the adoption of ECA, the shift toward high-yielding varieties has contributed to a decline in the cultivation of Tinawon rice, which is vital for maintaining the ecological balance and cultural heritage of the terraces. This study underscores the importance of balancing modern agricultural practices with the continued cultivation of Tinawon rice to preserve biodiversity, soil health, and cultural identity, while also enhancing agricultural productivity. Additionally, the roles of community-based support systems, market access, and financial incentives are highlighted as key factors in sustaining ECA practices. Climate change presents both challenges and opportunities for adaptation, making it essential to integrate traditional knowledge with modern techniques to build resilience. Understanding the factors that shape ECA continuation is crucial for refining initiatives that address both the economic and cultural contexts. By emphasizing the importance of tailored, community-driven interventions, this study provides critical insights for enhancing ECA adoption in the Ifugao Rice Terraces, contributing to climate resilience and the long-term sustainability of this significant agricultural heritage system.

Suggested Citation

  • Keshav Lall Maharjan & Clarisse Mendoza Gonzalvo & Jude Cadingpal Baggo, 2025. "Balancing Tradition and Innovation: The Role of Environmental Conservation Agriculture in the Sustainability of the Ifugao Rice Terraces," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-22, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:3:p:246-:d:1574881
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/3/246/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/3/246/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sonja Brodt & Gail Feenstra & Robin Kozloff & Karen Klonsky & Laura Tourte, 2006. "Farmer-Community Connections and the Future of Ecological Agriculture in California," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(1), pages 75-88, March.
    2. Syahrul Yasin Limpo & Imam Mujahidin Fahmid & Abdul Fattah & Abdul Wahid Rauf & Elza Surmaini & Muslimin & Saptana & Haris Syahbuddin & Kuntoro Boga Andri, 2022. "Integrating Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge for Decision Making of Rice Farming in South Sulawesi, Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Xiangbin Wang & Quan Zhu, 2022. "Influencing Factors of Traditional Village Protection and Development from the Perspective of Resilience Theory," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-24, December.
    4. Keshav Lall Maharjan & Clarisse Mendoza Gonzalvo & Manjeshwori Singh, 2024. "Farmer Perspectives on the Economic, Environmental, and Social Sustainability of Environmental Conservation Agriculture (ECA) in Namobuddha Municipality, Kavre, Nepal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-18, May.
    5. Mendelsohn, Robert & Dinar, Ariel, 1999. "Climate Change, Agriculture, and Developing Countries: Does Adaptation Matter?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 14(2), pages 277-293, August.
    6. Keshav Lall Maharjan & Clarisse Mendoza Gonzalvo & Wilson Jr. Florendo Aala, 2022. "Drivers of Environmental Conservation Agriculture in Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-23, August.
    7. Daniel El Chami & André Daccache & Maroun El Moujabber, 2020. "How Can Sustainable Agriculture Increase Climate Resilience? A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-23, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Keshav Lall Maharjan & Clarisse Mendoza Gonzalvo, 2025. "Examining Farmers’ Willingness to Learn Environmental Conservation Agriculture: Implications for Women Farmer Empowerment in Bagmati Province, Nepal," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-24, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Keshav Lall Maharjan & Clarisse Mendoza Gonzalvo, 2025. "Examining Farmers’ Willingness to Learn Environmental Conservation Agriculture: Implications for Women Farmer Empowerment in Bagmati Province, Nepal," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-24, March.
    2. Clarisse Mendoza Gonzalvo & Keshav Lall Maharjan & Jude Cadingpal Baggo & John Mervin Lasafin Embate, 2024. "Farmer Perceptions of GIAHS: Analyzing Farmer Involvement and GIAHS Benefits in the Ifugao Rice Terraces," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Mizgin, Karahan & Ito, Ryoji & Kiyono, Seiki, 2024. "Organic Agriculture Farmers’ Motivation for Environmentally Friendly Practices in Turkey and Japan," Japanese Journal of Agricultural Economics (formerly Japanese Journal of Rural Economics), Agricultural Economics Society of Japan (AESJ), vol. 26.
    4. Megan Swindal & Gilbert Gillespie & Rick Welsh, 2010. "Community digester operations and dairy farmer perspectives," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(4), pages 461-474, December.
    5. José Carlos Piñar-Fuentes & Juan Peña-Martínez & Ana Cano-Ortiz, 2024. "Integrating Thermo-Ombroclimatic Indicators into Sustainable Olive Management: A Pathway for Innovation and Education," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-25, November.
    6. Xu, Ying & Findlay, Christopher, 2019. "Farmers’ constraints, governmental support and climate change adaptation: Evidence from Guangdong Province, China," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 63(4), October.
    7. Sheng, Yu & Zhao, Shiji & Yang, Sansi, 2021. "Weather shocks, adaptation and agricultural TFP: A cross-region comparison of Australian Broadacre farms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    8. E. Somanathan & Rohini Somanathan & Anant Sudarshan & Meenu Tewari, 2021. "The Impact of Temperature on Productivity and Labor Supply: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(6), pages 1797-1827.
    9. Ying Xu & Christopher Findlay, 2019. "Farmers’ constraints, governmental support and climate change adaptation: evidence from Guangdong Province, China," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 63(4), pages 866-880, October.
    10. Naeem Akram, 2012. "Is climate change hindering economic growth of Asian economies?," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 19(2), pages 1-18, December.
    11. Munir Ahmed & Ghulam Mustafa & Muhammad Iqbal, 2016. "Impact of Farm Households’ Adaptations to Climate Change on Food Security: Evidence from Different Agro-ecologies of Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 561-588.
    12. Ahmad, Munir & Nawaz, Muhammad & Iqbal, Muhammad & Javed, Sajid, 2014. "Analysing the Impact of Climate Change on Rice Productivity in Pakistan," MPRA Paper 72861, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Arif Imam Suroso & Idqan Fahmi & Hansen Tandra, 2022. "The Role of Internet on Agricultural Sector Performance in Global World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-10, September.
    14. W.Neil Adger, 2001. "Scales of governance and environmental justice for adaptation and mitigation of climate change," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(7), pages 921-931.
    15. Ahmad, Munir & Iqbal, Muhammad & Farooq, Umar, 2015. "Food Security and its Constraining Factors in South Asia: Challenges and Opportunities," MPRA Paper 72868, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Gebreegziabher, Zenebe & Mekonnen, Alemu & Deribe, Rahel & Abera, Samuel & Kassahun, Meseret Molla, 2013. "Crop-Livestock Inter-linkages and Climate Change Implications for Ethiopia’s Agriculture: A Ricardian Approach," RFF Working Paper Series dp-13-14-efd, Resources for the Future.
    17. B. Sonneveld & M. Keyzer & P. Adegbola & S. Pande, 2012. "The Impact of Climate Change on Crop Production in West Africa: An Assessment for the Oueme River Basin in Benin," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 26(2), pages 553-579, January.
    18. Brookes Gray, Harriet & Taraz, Vis & Halliday, Simon D., 2023. "The impact of weather shocks on employment outcomes: evidence from South Africa," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(3), pages 285-305, June.
    19. Teresa Rodríguez-Espinosa & Jose Navarro-Pedreño & Ignacio Gómez Lucas & María Belén Almendro Candel & Ana Pérez Gimeno & Manuel Jordán Vidal & Iliana Papamichael & Antonis A. Zorpas, 2022. "Environmental Risk from Organic Residues," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    20. Scott, Steffanie & Si, Zhenzhong & Schumilas, Theresa & Chen, Aijuan, 2014. "Contradictions in state- and civil society-driven developments in China’s ecological agriculture sector," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 158-166.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:3:p:246-:d:1574881. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.