The smallholder upland farmers in Isabela, Philippines are one of the most vulnerable sectors to external shocks such as pandemic, climate change and natural calamities particularly typhoon. As external shocks are inevitable, there is need to build the resilience of agricultural sector specially in developing nations such as the Philippines particularly the vulnerable farmers in the uplands farming communities in the country through redesigning of their agricultural production systems that are based on the sustainable use of natural resources such as agroforestry system.

In the Philippines, there are various types agroforestry system that exist. The type of agroforestry system adopted by the farmers depend generally on the primary intentions of the farmers, capability of the land and the farmers, and institutional influences as well. Corn-based agroforestry system is one variant where corn serve as the dominant crop component of an agroforestry system. Primarily, the corn crop serve as the cash crops of the farmer while the perennial component provide ecological services.

This module is designed to enhance the knowledge and attitude of the upland smallholder farmers on potentials of agroforestry in promoting sustainable farming system. As an introductory, this module will highlight the basic concepts and principles of agroforestry; classification of various agroforestry systems, the agroforestry system ecosystem services, introduce ALCAMS as methodology for assessing the land capability for agroforestry; agroforestry system design; soil and water conservation strategies and good agricultural practices of coconut as component of corn-based agroforestry system.