Agriculture is the foundation of manufacturer and commerce. Historically, as countries have industrialized a number of smaller farmers have dwindled with workers opting for city life, but the Philippine government is concern on this trend that could lead food insecurity in an import-dependent country that is already struggling to most current food demand.
According to the 2012 Bureau of Agriculture Statistics, the agriculture sector employed an estimated 12 million people, making up 33 percent of the country's labor force. "The average age of a Filipino farmer is 57, assuming an average lifespan of 70, we might reach a critical shortage of farmers just 15 years", Asterio Saliot said, Director of the Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Training Institute (DA-ATI). The average level of education is grade five only", he added.
The farmers' age and limited education make them less receptive to new farming technologies that can boost yields in the face of the growing losses from the volatile weather. Farming is mostly the main source of living of the families in the rural areas. The farmers depend their income on their harvest twice or thrice a year to support their family's basic needs such as food, education, clothing, medicine, shelter, etc. How can they meet these? Common problems encountered by farmers were high cost of inputs, low price of agricultural products, lack of capital, labor problem, lack of post-harvest facilities. The lack of capital and presence of pests and diseases on plants affect production during wet season. This implies that an increase in these factors would considerably reduce the output. On the contrary, the coefficients of low price of output and high cost of inputs brought bias to the farmers' side, for it affects their income directly. But on the other hand, the implication is that an increased in these variables result to an increase in total output. For high cost of inputs, one possible reason why this problem can't lead to an increase in output is due to farmer's efficient use of inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides. On the other hand, low price of outputs may imply why a farmer who yields more encounters a problem sage with unavailability of post-harvest facilities, and lack of drying pavements, thus, forcing them to sell their produced fresh products tial despite it's low price. And it says " the poorer becomes poorer". How could we break this cycle?
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