Global–Local Tensions in Contract Farming of Biofuel Crops Involving Indigenous Communities in the Philippines

Abstract

Farming of biofuel crops by local communities under contract with parastatal and private firms is being established in the Philippines and elsewhere. This study explores tensions in integrating indigenous peoples into the global biofuels network. Drawing from critical perspectives on contract farming and from the environmental sociology of networks and flows, we examine production relations associated with contract farming of Jatropha on indigenous lands in the Philippines. In on-site observations and interviews, we found that while some indigenous groups grow Jatropha in polyculture, shifting-cultivation systems as part of biofuel contracts, these smallholder production systems are being phased out or transformed by the global biofuels network. In contract farming relationships involving biofuel crops, there seems to be a greater tendency for indigenous peoples to adapt to, or be left outside of, global production networks than for the latter to include indigenous peoples in socially and ecologically sustainable ways.

Keywords:

• biofuels
• contract farming
• environmental flows
• global networks
• indigenous peoples
• Jatropha
• the Philippines

Notes

Exemplary cases are in Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia, where smallholder farmers are encouraged and supported by the government, domestic and foreign companies, and NGOs to grow Jatropha as cash crop on degraded lands (Hunsberger 2010; UN DESA 2007).

We define traditional shifting cultivation here as the year-round, communitywide, and ritually based intermittent clearing of forest for production of staple food crops, followed by a much longer period of forest fallow (Conklin 1957). These systems may still be integral or just supplemental to indigenous livelihoods, social systems, and culture (Cramb et al. 2009). Although Conklin (1957) and Nye and Greenland (1960) define traditional shifting cultivation in the Philippines as those having a cultivation:fallow ratio of 1:20, based on more recent accounts the fallow period practiced by one of the indigenous groups in Province A is about 3–4 years (Dressler 2005). Based on our interviews in Province A, indigenous farmers claim to practice fallow periods of 3–6 years. Although the practice is blamed for deforestation in tropical countries, many scholars argue that indigenous practices of shifting cultivation do not cause deforestation (see Dove 1983; O'Brien 2002), but actually play a significant role in promoting ecological resilience and preservation of biological diversity (Finegan and Nasi 2004).

CBFMAs are tenurial instruments that allow peoples' organizations (many of which are indigenous groups) to engage in 25-year partnership with the government to co-manage vast areas of forestlands in the Philippines. Participating groups then acquire secure tenure in the duration of the agreement, as well as rights to utilize forest resources and to engage in contract farming with external entities (see Pulhin et al. 2007). Contract farming arrangements then should theoretically be aligned with the resource management plans outlined by the peoples' organizations.

The provinces are anonymized here to help protect the identities of the indigenous groups.

The other government owned corporation is tasked to undertake agro-reforestation projects in the upland regions. This company is not discussed in this article.

Republic of the Philippines Act No. 9367 sets decisive mandates for development and use of biodiesel and bioethanol in the ground transport sector of the country.

Interview, parastatal company manager, June 21, 2010.

Interview, parastatal company manager, June 21, 2010.

Interview, private company manager, June 19, 2010.

Based on the list of land requests shown by a government official of the Department of Agrarian Reform during an interview on July 26, 2010.

Land reform beneficiaries can both be indigenous or nonindigenous, but lands accorded become privately owned.

According to the contracts, the parastatal company is required to provide funding to their indigenous partners in terms of farm inputs, maintenance of plantation sites and fields, and administration and supervision for a period of about 18 months.

Based on more recent interviews with the parastatal company managers, there are reports of a change in feedstock production priorities of the company and the government, from Jatropha to ethanol-producing feedstocks, such as sugarcane, cassava, and sweet sorghum. The company's Jatropha production contracts are currently suspended.

Indigenous farmers we interviewed claim that the maintenance support given to them helped them (1) acquire commodities and services that require cash transactions (e.g., rice and school fees) and (2) sustain areas for intercropping of subsistence crops.

Interview, indigenous farmer, October 6, 2011.

Interview, indigenous farmer, June 8, 2010.

Interview, indigenous farmer, October 14, 2011.

Interview, private firm manager, June 25, 2010.

Interview, indigenous farmer, June 8, 2010.

Interview, government liaison officer, July 2, 2010.