Giselle Joy Balogo

BSBA – 3B

Assessment:

Direction: Copy and answer the following questions below.

1. Explain how agriculture first started in the world.

The agriculture started in early stages in man’s economic development where humans need
to be vigilant to survive. In early times humans need to compete for their food with different
kind of animals and they need to change places to find resources of their food. Humans
learned to adapt in their environment and find ways on how to grow plants, catch fish and
to have livestock. The eagerness to survive give humans the ideas to make and grow food
within their surroundings.

2. What are the major sectors and subsectors of Philippine agriculture?

The Philippine Standard Industrial Classification (PSIC) classifies the Philippine economy into
three major sectors: Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (AHFF), Industry and Services.
Agriculture is divided into three subsectors: crop production, livestock, and poultry. Forestry
includes the production of forest-based products like log, lumber, plywood, and veneer
sheets. Fishing is made up of the aquaculture, commercial fishery, and municipal fishery
subsectors. Industry covers such process-based businesses like mining, utilities (e.g.,
electricity, gas, and water) while Services encompass enterprises such as hotels and
educational institutions.

3. Why is agricultural vital to all of us?

You see, without agriculture, cities would not have been able to exist. The simplest argument
for this is that if our ancestors hadn't discovered how to till the fields, humans might still be
hunter-gatherers to this day. Agriculture has been the traditional backbone of the Philippine
economy. It is a principal source of income and employment, employing almost half of the
total labor force. Agriculture plays an essential role in sustaining and driving the economy.
It's the backbone of everything that drives us. In addition to providing food and other raw
Giselle Joy Balogo
BSBA – 3B

materials, it also provides employment opportunities. Safe to say the importance of

agriculture cannot be overstated.

4. Why our agricultural productivity is low?

Land productivity in the Philippines is lower than in other countries in Southeast Asia.
Limited land productivity is a result of many factors such as small farm size; underutilization
of land due to water supply issues resulting from watershed degradation; low operational
efficiency of existing irrigation systems; a deficit of rural infrastructure, particularly irrigation
works, farm-to-market roads, and post-harvest facilities; the high cost of farm inputs;
competing uses of agricultural lands; and weak links between smallholders or producers and
enterprises. The majority of existing irrigation systems are old and deteriorated due to
inappropriate designs, inadequate operation and maintenance budgets, and the lack of
funds for timely rehabilitation of facilities damaged by seasonal floods and typhoons. In
fisheries, establishment and/or improvement of regional and municipal fish ports and
landings, ice plants and cold storage facilities, and marketing support facilities are essential
to reducing post-harvest losses.
Our low productivity also imperils agriculture’s ability to even sustain its export earnings. It
also weakens our competitive position in the international free trade market pursued by the
World Trade Organization that is about to engulf and reduce us to a nation of food
importers.

5. Describe the typical Filipino farm.

A typical Filipino farm is a family affair. Family members run the typical small and simple
Filipino farm. Many believe that farmers prefer to sire many children so they could be of
future help in the farm. They produce for their own consumption and sell the rest to nearby
relatives and friends and to middlemen.
The typical Filipino man of the soil still practices traditional farming. He plows his field with
the family carabao and does everything else manually. Modern technology is either
unknown to or out of his financial reach. The effect is low farm productivity. The basic crops
of the typical Filipino farm include rice, corn, and coconuts plus a few heads of poultry and
Giselle Joy Balogo
BSBA – 3B

livestock. The slightly larger farms also enter into "contract growing of palm oil, tomato,
corn seeds, banana, cucumber, asparagus, and chicken.
With a few exceptions, the typical Filipino farm sits far away from the nearest marketplace.
Worse, the farm-to-market road conditions are not in the best of shape even as the
government is doing its best to remedy the situation. Thus, rather than taking the costly and
time-consuming trip to the market, the typical farmer would rather sell his produce right at
his farm gate and at a much lower price.
With a few exceptions, the small farmer hardly has enough money for both family and farm.
He lives a hand-to-mouth existence and, therefore, cannot save enough for the next planting
season. To make both ends meet, he has to borrow. But he cannot borrow from a bank. So,
he resorts to individual lenders who charge exorbitant rates. Or the poor farmer mortgages
his future produce to middlemen. The loan is for family food and education for a child or
two. The loan balance, with little left, goes to seedlings and other farm inputs. Lastly, he gets
caught up in a web of perpetual debt from which there is no escape. Eventually, the children
inherit the obligation and the life of debt starts anew.
Sad to say that a Filipino farmer is typically poor.

6. What problems confront Filipino farmers? Explain.

Here are the problems confront Filipino Farmers:

 Uneconomical farm size. Much of the reason for the continued low productivity in
crop production is due to the uneconomical farm sizes.
 Inadequate credit access. Small farmers do not qualify to borrow the amount they
need because they do not have much collateral to offer banks.
 Inadequate farm facilities. We still lack irrigation. fam-to-market roads, and post-
harvest facilities.
 Traditional farming. Most Filipino farmers have learned farming from their parents
and grandparents with hardly new knowledge passing from one generation to the
next, Hence, the typical farmer sticks to tradition.

6. Why do we import so much agricultural products?

Giselle Joy Balogo
BSBA – 3B

The Philippines is an agricultural country and why we still need to import? The Philippines
import agricultural products for some reasons when we have crisis in our food resources. In
times where we are devastated by typhoons and other disasters millions are lost in
agriculture sector. Typhoon and flash flood will reduce farm productivity by damaging farm
inputs and destroying establishment and infrastructure and prevent an increasing in farm
planting, these results in the worse condition in output and productivity which will possibly
harm by the country's food security, economic losses, and income.

7. Why does not the country export processed cattle and goat meat?

The production system of cattle would require extensive areas for production like remote
areas; same areas that are inaccessible and has problems on peace and order. Furthermore,
there was difficulty in encouraging investors to go venture into pasture development and
cattle raising because of the risks. Another reason cited is the low demand for beef in the
country because of its relatively higher price compared to other meat products.
Tagged as the sunrise industry in the country because of its enterprise potential, goat
population has gradually increased in the past decades but suffered a slow and almost
stagnant growth for the past several years. This also reflects on the domestic supply trend
for chevon with the entire supply produced locally. The uptake in goat production has also
been decreasing because many producers discontinued operation due to losses; production
cost exceeds the selling price for goat/chevon.
Several reports pointed out that that there has been an increasing demand for processed
meat products and canned goods brought about by increasing purchasing power of local
consumers. With limited local supply of carabeef, a primary raw material in manufacturing
processed meat, manufacturers opted to importing bulk volume of carabeef from India.

8. How can we improve farm productivity?

Management and implementation of decision-making process at farm level involves

organizing and operating for higher productivity and maximum profit. Farm management
involves agricultural economics to draw information on market prices, agricultural policies
and economic institutions for purpose of leases, credit and loans. It is the collective term for
 Giselle Joy Balogo
BSBA – 3B

various processes, management methods or strategies employed to increase productivity

and profitability of a farm. It includes soil, plant and animal sciences for extracting
information on soils; seed and fertilizer; control methods for weeds, insects or pests and
diseases; rations and breeding; agricultural engineering for crop drying, farm machinery and
buildings; irrigation, drainage and erosion control systems; understanding psychology and
sociology of human behaviour.
Improving agricultural productivity is important in order to improve farmer incomes, and it
requires increases in yield, better productivity through the efficient utilization of resources,
reduction in crop losses, and ensuring that farmers receive fair prices for output. The
phenomenal benefits from focusing on improving access to seeds highlight the need to
prioritize policies that will achieve the most for farmers.

To Do
Directions: Copy and answer the following:

1. Using TABLE 9-1, research on the different kinds of forest land.

Forest Land (2019) Area

Closed Forest 2,028,015

Open Forest 4,682,764

Mangrove Forest 303,373

Total Area 7,014,152

2. Based on TABLE 9-10, research on the different kinds of frozen fish that we import.

Frozen fish import in the Philippines in 2019, by kind