Most PH farmers don’t want farming for their children — study
News | Jazryl Galarosa
More than two-thirds of Filipino rice farmers in three provinces do not want their children to pursue rice farming due to physical and financial hurdles, a study published in the Philippine Journal of Science reported.
The study aimed to evaluate the factors that influence the aspirations of Filipino rice farmers for their children as there is little empirical evidence on this matter.
Dr. Florencia Palis, a professor of anthropology and the author of the study, said this can guide the government in formulating pro-poor policies and implementing positive interventions to address food security in the Philippines.
Palis utilized quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the socio-demographic profile of Filipino farmers, their aspirations for their children, and the factors that influenced their aspirations.
Focus group discussions, interviews, and field observations were conducted in 13 villages of 12 municipalities in Isabela, Iloilo, and Agusan del Norte, each representing the three major islands of the country. The municipalities were selected based on size of rice-growing area and accessibility, among other considerations. Palis also conducted a survey among randomly selected 923 farmers from the three provinces.
Among the interviewed farmers, 73% of them believed that their children would not have a future if they become rice farmers like them. The farmers commonly pointed out how rice farming is “physically tiring and not economically rewarding.”
Thirty-two percent of the parent farmers meanwhile wanted college education for their children to pursue a non-farming career “to have a stable job and income.” Twenty-one percent of the farmers said that their children are not interested in rice farming.
Palis found out that gender, tenure, province, and education negatively affected the aspirations of farmers for their children to become rice farmers.
“Rice farming is labor-and capital- intensive and yet, income is low and uncertain. It is viewed that their children would not have any future in it and it, therefore, is considered the last resort,” Palis said in her study, adding that according to Philippine Statistics Authority, the agricultural sector tallied the highest poverty incidence at 34.3%.
This affirmed the previous study Palis co-authored on small-scale Filipino farmers in 2015, where “Filipino rice farmers are trapped in the cycle of poverty since most of them have insufficient capital to commence rice cultivation.”
“The Philippine government and agricultural institutions need to formulate on-the-ground strategies that will raise the motivation of farmers and their children to continue rice farming and, thereby, contribute to attaining the country’s rice self-sufficiency goal,” Palis concluded.
In the 2020 State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Duterte on July 27, he proposed the “Plant, Plant, Plant” program to provide adequate and affordable food for all. Duterte also mentioned the ₱66-billion agricultural stimulus package to help farmers recover amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Tulungan natin ang ating mga magsasaka,” Duterte said in his SONA, proposing the utilization of the coconut levy for the welfare of the farmers.
While Duterte believed that the “growth of our economy depends on our robust agricultural sector,” the Philippines remained to be one of the top importers of rice, even surpassing China to become the biggest rice importer in 2019.
Duterte also signed the Rice Tariffication Law in 2019 that increased the rice supply in the market through importation. The Federation of Free Farmers said that farmers lost ₱68.18 billion due to rice imports during the first implementation of this law.
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