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Developmental Scheme for lowland Rice Farmers of Bukidnon: A Strategy of Change
Dissertation Abstract:
The study attempted to present a descriptive profile of Bukidnon farmers, analyze their development needs and problems, identify some variables associated with their socioeconomic conditions, and propose a plan for their development.
An interview schedule was used to gather data on 379 farmers in 28 barrios in 3 municipalities of Bukidnon. The respondents consisted of 39.4% tenants, 3.4% part-owners, and 57.2% farm owners. Measures of central tendency, frequency counts, percentages, ranking and chi-square test were employed in date analysis.
Findings revealed that the farmers’ average age was 42.78 years and their wives, 38.57 years. Seventy-nine percent were migrants and only 21% natives of Bukidnon. Farming had been the occupation of 76.1%; the others had nonfarm jobs before turning farmers. Average farming experience was 20.18 years. The farmers’ average educational attainment was grade six; their wives, grade five; and their children, second year high school. Mean number of children was 5.96.
Development needs and problems of the farmers concerned lack of extension agents to communicate extensively and maintain innovations, inadequate source of direction in farmers’ organizations, adverse tie-up with merchants and middlemen in the marketing of farm produce, and production perplexities such as absence of irrigation water, poor drainage system, natural calamities, pest and diseases, expensive farm inputs, and persistent use of traditional varieties. The farmers perceived that training in farm management and related areas could help them meet their needs and problems.
The following were found to be significantly associated: entrepreneurial attitude and educational level; innovativeness and tenure status, region of origin and distance of farm from town; traditionalism and tenure status, region of origin and types if school attended by children; familism, and region of origin and types if school attended by children; authority regarding farm matters and educational level and tenure status; perception of structural blockage and region of origin, outside community contacts, educational level and tenure status; perceived relative deprivation and educational level, tenure status, region of origin and outside community contacts. The study proposed a developmental scheme to communicate innovations to the hard-to-reach individual farmers through the concentric approach in extension work, and to establish institutional linkages among the provincial government, the Agricultural Productivity Commission, and the Central Mindanao University.
