CONCEPT PAPER

FERNANDEZ, ELIZA F.

AB ECONOMICS 3A

IMPACTS OF REAPERS ON RICE PRODUCTION IN SOLANA

Introduction:

Agriculture is one of the oldest profession in the world but this is the reason why we have foods on our
table and it helps the farmers also in providing income. Farmers are the one who work hard in producing
foods for the big population in the world. They contribute a lot because they are the one who were in
the field. Rice is the most important crop in the Philippines. It is the country's staple food and Filipinos
depend on it for living ( Philippine Research Institute, 1999).

In addition, agriculture is an important sector for the global economy. When it comes to production,
total production of primary crops increased by 53 percent between 2000 and 2019, hitting a record high
of 9.4 billion tonnes in 2019. Half of global primary crop production is made up of just four crops: sugar
cane, maize, wheat and rice . Agriculture also has always been responsible for producing foods for the
world population. Back then, the dawn of agriculture has supported only 4 million people but today
modern technologies feeds over 7 billion people worldwide, so this statistic alone shows just how far the
industry has come in recent years ( Tillman et., Al (2002) ).

Technology within agriculture have made a big contribution to the lives of every farmers just like
improving their income in the production of rice. The invention of new technologies has made a big
impact on the farming sector. With the help of technology, farmers can finish their work easier and it
can make farming more efficient in producing rice. Reaper is one of the technology use for harvesting
rice mechanically, it eliminates the need for laborers to gather the crops by hand during harvest. With
the advent of machinery, agricultural production increased greatly and requiring less physical labor. This
time, rice harvesting is extremely important because it is one of the important food crops in the world
and ranks second in terms of area and production ( Devi et al., 2009). Rice production continues to be
greatest in Asia, where 90% of the crop is grown, but it has also been stable or increased in America,
Africa and Europe ( Elphick, 2010 ). For rice prodution , harvesting is an important and sensitive part so
farmers must use technology to make their harvesting faster.

In our municipality, some farmers did not finish immediately in harvesting rice because physical/manual
labor is their mode in harvesting and it can take quite a long time before they finish in harvesting and it
is time consuming. So inorder to make their work easier especially in harvesting they need to use
reapers inorder for them to finish their work. The significant of using reapers is that to help the farmers
in crop harvest and to have enough income. Rice harvesting with the latest invented technology which is
reapers have some remarkable benefits in comparison to traditional manual harvesting of rice. It saves
rice harvesting time, it saves labor involvement , it saves harvesting cost and it also reduces human
drudgery. The social impact of using reapers is that it allowed more food to be harvested at once.

Manual harvesting of rice is sometime a troublesome, time consuming , labor involving and costly
operation, therefore, several rice producing of Asian countries have seriously attempted to introduce
compatible technologies for current circumstance ( Alizadeh and Allameh, 2013 ). World Bank ( 2007 ),
Kienzle et al. ( 2013 ) and Mahmud et al. ( 2014 ) showed that agricultural machinery ( reapers) may be
of great interest to savings with reduction in drudgery by substituting labor and traditional tools with
efficient machineries. (Jones et al., 2019) mentioned that technologies can improve the timing of tasks,
reduce drudgery, make labor more efficient and improve the quality and quantity of food. Timely
harvesting is a crucial and important process to ensure yield, quality and production cost of rice ( Noby
et al., 2018 ).

In conclusion, adoption of modern mechanical harvesting just like reapers are urgently needed to save
time, labor and money through reducing the human drudgery , harvesting losses and increase the
cropping intensity and crop productivity of the farmers.

Objectives

This paper seeks to achieve its objectives on the impacts of Reapers on rice production in Solana.

1. To determine if the farmers are satisfied in using reapers in harvesting rice in Solana.

2. To know if using reapers can improve their income.

3. To determine the benefits of using reapers among farmers in harvesting rice

Research Questions

This paper also includes the possible questions to be ask among the farmers.

1.) Does using reapers in agriculture improve the income in the production of rice among farmers?
2.) What are the importance of reapers on rice production among farmers in Solana?

3.) What are the benefits on the farmers of using reapers in harvesting rice?

Hypothesis

• There is a significant of using reapers in harvesting rice in the income of the farmers in Solana.

• There is a significant of using reapers in harvesting of rice to the farmers compare to physical/manual
labor.

Methodology

This study intends to use descriptive research design in determining the impacts of Reapers on Rice
Production in Solana. The study will sample 377 registered rice farmers in Solana out of a population of
6,569. The study will collect primary data through giving of questionnaire to the participants in their
respective barangay and I will use simple random sampling in selecting my participants in my study.
Mixed method also is conducted to collect data among farmers regarding on the Impacts of Reapers on
Rice Production in Solana.

Timeline or work program

This project is expected to be completed within 7 weeks with the following indicated duration for every
section of the research project.

Research Section Duration

1. Title 1 week

2. Intoduction 1 week

3. Preliminary Literature 1 week

4. Objectives 1 week

5. Research Questions 1 week

6. Hypothesis 1 week

7. Research methodology 1 week

References

Tado C.J.M. 2001. Mechanization of rice production in the Philippines trends and perspectives. Ann.
Trop. Res. 23 [1]: 66-80

Conor Parke (2015, December). Impact of Technology on agriculture and Food Production

Rihanna Hopf (2020, February). What does the mechanical reaper do?

Quillan crowe (2018, October). Mechanical Reaper and its impacts

Kamrul Hasan, Takashi S.T. Tanaka, Monjurul Alam, Rostom Ali, Chayan Kumer Saha. Impact of Modern
Rice Harvesting Practices over Traditional ones. 2020 p.89-108