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Socioeconomic Factors Associated with the Spending Behavior of Lowland Rice Farmers
Dissertation Abstract:
The study was designed to determine the current living level of the farmers based on their expenditures, to identify certain social variables related to their spending behavior, and to postulate a relationship model for farmers’ expenditure with respect to some sociological factors.
Respondents were 343 farmers in 15 municipalities in Nueva Ecija. Data were gathered through an interview schedule and analyzed with the use of rankings, percentages and regression analyses.
Findings indicated that of the 343 farm families studied, 58.6% belonged to the low-income, 32.4% to the middle-income, and 9.0% to the high-income group. A farm family owned an average of P615 worth of durable household goods. Fixed and other assets amounted of P6,082. Average indebtedness of the low-income families was P874; the middle-income group, P1,335; and the high-income families, P2,094.
Food and beverages ranked first (67.83%) among expenditure items. Agricultural improvement expense was second for the low-and middle-income group and third for the high-income families. Actual expense was 76.51% in the low-income, 57.21% in the middle, and 50.15% in the high-income, P860.92 for the middle-income, and P1,094.22 for the high-income families.
Sociological factors found associated with the spending behavior of the rice farmers were family size, age of family members, family’s relative social position in the community, distance of residence from market centers, number of sari-sari stores in the locality, membership in organizations, value of durable goods owned, and value of fixed and other assets. Considered in their composite effects, therefore, resource and demographic factors were significant determinants of the spending behavior of the lowland rice farmers.
The regression model for per capita expenditure was found to be an exponential function of the independent variables for the low- and middle-income families, and a linear function of the same for the high-income group.
