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The Upland Stabilization Program (USP): Palawan's Model for Upland Development
Dissertation Abstract:
The study was conducted among members of tribal communities who were recipients of an Upland Stabilization Program (USP), a major component of the Palawan Integ rated Area Development Project (PIADP), a foreign -assisted project in the province of Palawan, Philippines.
It described the program components as perceived by the upland cultural minorities and establi shed the relationships between the independent variables (predictors) with the program effect indicators such as farm productivity, level of income, level of living, and satisfaction in upland farming of the respondents.
Data were gathered by means of an interview questionnaire using as respondents 215 members of the Tagbanua (51) and the Palawan (164) tribes in three USP pilot sites.
Results revealed that, on the average, the upland dwellers were middle aged (36 years), had very low educational attainment, had five household members, had been residing in their village for 23 years, had an upland farming experience of 15 years, owned an average upland property of 3.19 ha, and had an average annual income of P15,153.90. They had "very high" aspirations for themselves, their families, and their respective communities. However, the level of living was found to "very low," although they were generally "satisfied" with upland farming.
The program introduced 20 upland technologies, half of which were adopted by the farmer-beneficiaries. Almost the whole cultivable area (1.89 ha) had been planted to bananas, fruit trees, rice, and corn, giving the respondents an average farm productivity of P10,265.36.
The USP, however, seemed to have failed to establish a viable farmers' organization in the three areas, although the respondents perceived the im plementation of the components of the projects as generally useful. Moreover, they were not aware of the components of USP. the three sites where it was implemented, and the rationale for having a strong farmers' organization in the area. They were fully aware, however, of the persons and the organi zations/agencies that helped implement the program.
Out of 231 possible correlations between and among the independent variables (predictors) and the dependent variables (program effect ind icators), 55.41 percent were found to be significant at 0.05 level. The four dependent variab les (i.e., fa rm productivity, level of income, level of living, and satisfaction with upland fa rming) were all highly associated with each other.
Regression results revealed that education, size of farm of respondents inside and outside the USP, land use, participation. and perception have contributed significantly to farm productivity. Variables that contributed significantly to level of income were education, size of farm of respondents inside the USP, benefits derived from the USP, land use, and perception.
On the other hand, education, size of farm inside and outside the USP, land use, adoption of the recommended technologies, participation, and perception contributed to the level of living of the respondents. Benefits derived from USP, adoption of the recommended technologies, participation, and perception contributed to the level of satisfaction of the respondents with upland farming.
As a cultural minority, the Tagbanuas were considered to be better off than the Palawanos in terms of farm productivity, level of income, and level of living. Both groups had the same level of satisfaction with upland farming.
