Practices of Crop Production

(CROPSCI 2)

CHAPTER I. Issues in Crop Production and development

A. Nature and Importance of Agriculture

Agriculture is the most important enterprise in the world.

Agriculture is a production plant where the free gifts of nature such as land, water, air, soil
energy, etc. are used as inputs and then converted into a single primary unit that is crop plants
and their yield which are indispensable for human beings. Those primary units are consumed
by animals and are converted into secondary units like milk, meat, eggs, wool, honey, silk, etc.

1. Provides employment:

Agriculture has the contribution of 16% in the gross domestic product (GDP) of the
country. The agricultural sector also provides livelihood to two-thirds of the
population. The agricultural sector is responsible for the employment of 58% of
country’s workforce.

2. Significant contribution in country’s exports:

This sector accounts for about 15% of the total export earnings and provides raw
material to almost all the industries i.e. textiles, silk, rice, rubber, paper, flour mills,
milk products industries.

3. An important source of resource mobilization:

As the people in rural areas are not very rich, it proves as one of the biggest markets
for low-priced consumer goods.

4. Better Agriculture better is the Food Security of the country:

If the agricultural sector of a country is strong, it acts as-as a wall in maintaining food
security and in the process, national security as well.

5. Important allied sectors:

There are many allied sectors of agriculture like horticulture, poultry, dairy, and
fisheries. They have a very important role in the development of the rural masses. So
there is a need for the balanced development of agriculture and allied sectors.

1
CSU-CAA Supplemental Lecture Notes | CP 102, Rev. 0, 06-01-20
B. Definition of Terms

Agriculture can be defined as the art, the science, and business of cultivating crops and
livestock for economic purposes. In short, it is a branch of science which deals with the
production of plants and raising of animals useful to man.

Crop Science- the study of the world's major food, feed, turf, and fiber crops and their
environment. It is a broad discipline encompassing breeding, genetics, production, and
management.

Crop Production- a branch of agriculture that deals with growing crops for use as food and
fiber

C. History of Crop Production

Before Green revolution:

a.) Pastoral age- man lived on the gift of nature; gather wild plants and for food and medicine;
catch fishes by hand

b.) Middle Stone age- use bow and arrow to catch fish and wild animals, gather and store food

c.) New Stone/Neolithic age- domestication of plants and animals began; villages began to
grow and man made a transition from food collection to deliberate raising of crops.

Green Revolution:

- named by USAID Director William Gaud in 1968

- Dr. Norman Borlaug (Father of Green Revolution)
- The large increase in agricultural production in developed and developing countries
during 1960s due to:
• mechanized agriculture;
• use of high yielding varieties (HYVs);
• use of chemical fertilizers; and
• use of pesticides

Major Events of the Green Revolution

• 1960s- the government of the Republic of the Philippines with the Ford Foundation and
the Rockefeller Foundation established IRRI (International Rice Research Institute)
• 1962- the IRRI crossed Dee-Geo-woo-gen and Peta rice strains
• 1968- IR8, or “miracle rice,” was formed
• 1981- the use of miracle rice reaches 81% of total rice crops

2
CSU-CAA Supplemental Lecture Notes | CP 102, Rev. 0, 06-01-20
 Benefits

• IR8, “miracle rice,” produced ten times the amount of rice as traditional varieties
• As a result of the switch to farming IR8, annual rice production in the Philippines increased
from 3.7 to 7.7 million tons in 2 decades
• The large increase in rice production allowed the Philippines to become an exporter of
rice for the first time in the 20th century

Environmental and Agricultural Problems

• Chemical fertilizers used in conjunction with miracle rice eroded soil
• Increased rice production led to increased water consumption
• Pesticides and fertilizers used in rice farming polluted water and caused siltation
• Declining water quality poses a threat to future rice production, due to the high
amount of clean water required to grow rice
• The Philippines did not have sufficient funding to improve irrigation systems→ fell
behind neighboring countries
• Vulnerable to recurring natural disasters, which posed a large threat to the
agriculture-based economy

Rice Production Afterwards

• 1973- the Philippines experienced domestic/international problems causing a

downfall in economic development that continued until 1986,
• Tropical storms and drought adversely affected yields
• Rising debts→ Crop loan supply depletion→ Falling income→ Poor agricultural
production
• Farmers were squeezed by rising debts and declining income

Present and Future

New developments:
• 33 new strains of rice IR8
• IRRI developing rice that can survive underwater for 2< weeks
• Transition to organic fertilizers

Issues in Crop Production and Development

1. Food Security
Food security as defined by the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security, means
that all peoples at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and
nutritious food, meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.
Aside from food security, another concern has emerged, due to the quality of the human diet.
The nutrition insecurity of food or so called “hidden hunger” for mankind had gain more

3
CSU-CAA Supplemental Lecture Notes | CP 102, Rev. 0, 06-01-20
attention. One of the issues concerning nutrition was the problem in vitamin A deficiency
(VAD). VAD is prevalent to poor and developing countries whose staple food is rice. In rice,
grains do not have beta-carotene (provitamin A). Children and pregnant woman are highly
vulnerable to this deficiency. This can lead to blindness, severe problem in immune system,
associated with other diseases and even lead to morbidity and mortality of millions of people.
Fortification, supplementation and diet diversification were some of the solutions being done
by different governments. Food and Nutrition Security currently and continuously challenged
by:

a. Population Growth

• The world’s population is predicted to hit 9.6 Billion by 2050, from today’s total of
nearly 7.3 Billion.

• The Philippines’ population, which is growing at about 2% annually is projected to

reach 120 million by 2025.

• With it, food demand is predicted to increase substantially.

b. Changing Tastes

• As people become more affluent, they start eating food that is richer in processed
foods, meat and dairy.

• But, to produce more meat means growing more grain.

• It takes up to 16 lbs of grain to produce 1 lbs of animal flesh.

c. Water Scarcity

4
CSU-CAA Supplemental Lecture Notes | CP 102, Rev. 0, 06-01-20
 • At present, 28% of agriculture lies in water-stressed regions.

• It takes roughly 1,500 L of water to produce a kilogram of wheat, and about 16,000 L
to produce a kilogram of beef.

• In 2050, we’ll need twice as much water.

d. Farmers
• Fewer and fewer people are appreciating farming as lucrative ventures.
• Arable land continues to be lost to urban-expansion and soil is being degraded by over-
farming
• The Philippines, ranked as one of the most disaster-prone countries, experiences an
average of 20 typhoons annually.

e. Food loss and waste

• Food losses can be defined as the food available to human consumption but goes
unconsumed due to wastage and spillage. The loss in food can occur from harvesting

5
CSU-CAA Supplemental Lecture Notes | CP 102, Rev. 0, 06-01-20
 to post-harvest storage. It can be categorized as weight loss due to spoilage, quality
loss, nutritional loss, seed viability loss, and commercial loss. Losses of food varies
among different crops, areas and economic status.
• Filipinos waste too much rice, resulting in losses worth more than P23 million a day or
about P8.4 billion a year. The daily rice wastage can feed more than 312,000 mouths
per day. That’s a population of an average-sized municipality. Developing countries,
including the Philippines, food losses are of high rates due to a lack of knowledge,
inadequate technologies and poor storage infrastructure. FAO estimated that food
losses and waste contribute to 10% of the world’s energy consumption. Lastly, food
waste questions humanity’s morality and amplifies the gap between the prosperous
and destitute factions of the population. It is a terrible fact that food is wasted while
a large portion of the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition

f. Food Crisis

• A food crisis occurs when rates of hunger and malnutrition rise sharply at local,
national, or global levels. This definition distinguishes a food crisis from chronic
hunger, although food crises are far more likely among populations already suffering
from prolonged hunger and malnutrition. A food crisis is usually set off by a shock to
either supply or demand for food and often involves a sudden spike in food prices. It
is important to remember that in a market economy, food prices measure the scarcity
of food, not its value in any nutritional sense. Except in rare circumstances, the
straightforward way to prevent a food crisis is to have rapidly rising labor productivity

6
CSU-CAA Supplemental Lecture Notes | CP 102, Rev. 0, 06-01-20
 through economic growth and keep food prices stable while maintaining access by the
poor.

2. Farmers’ Income

• Previously, Philippine Government policies were focused on yield, without enough

consideration for the quality of life of the farmer.
• The average daily wage of a farmer is $6, versus the National average of $10.
• Effect of R.A. 10963 (TRAIN Law)
The increased fuel prices mean a 10% drop in the income of rice farmers, especially
those dependent on motorized pumps for irrigation.
• Fuel cost which accounts for 30% of a farmer’s total production cost, had increased by
P2,014 per hectare.
• “The average age of the Filipino farmer is 57. Assuming an average life span of 70,
we might reach a critical [shortage] of farmers in just 15 years” (Asterio Saliot, DA-
ATI).
• “The problem with farming is that it is associated with poverty. So no farmer would
want their children to become farmers” (Jocelyn Alma Badiola, COCAFM).

3. Increased Food Prices

Increase in food prices are due to the following:

a. High-oil prices
• Modern agriculture uses oil products to fuel farm machinery, to transport other inputs
to the farm, and to transport farm output to the ultimate consumer.
• Oil byproducts are significant components of fertilizer, contributing 20% of the cost of
raising grain.
b. Increasing demand for Bio-fuels
• With the start of decline in fossil fuel deposits, demand for bio-fuels have increased.
• Bio-fuels are often made from food crops (e.g., sugarcane, corn, canola, etc).
• As demand for these alternative fuels increases, crop prices are forced upwards,
making food even less affordable.
c. Trade intervention
• Many developed and developing countries heavily subsidize their agricultural
industries that gives them an edge in international trade. To give farmers a fair trade
advantage, WTO limits the amount of subsidized commodities that countries can
add to global stockpiles;
• However, it also reduces the amount of food available in a shortage. That increases
food price volatility.
d. Demand for meat products
• People around the world are eating more meat as they become more affluent.
• It takes more grain to feed the animals needed for meat-based meals than is necessary
for grain-based meals.
• Higher demand for meat means higher grain prices.

7
CSU-CAA Supplemental Lecture Notes | CP 102, Rev. 0, 06-01-20
4. Climate Change

• At current rates, the amount of food we’re growing today will feed only half of the
population by 2050.
• Climate change - refers to significant changes in global temperature, precipitation,
wind patterns and other measures of climate that occur over several decades or
longer.
• Largely due to the increased levels of atmospheric CO2 produced by the use of fossil
fuels.
• Agriculture is a significant contributor of greenhouse gases (10-13% of total GHG
emissions).
Human sources of GHG emissions:
- fossil fuel use
- deforestation
- intensive livestock farming
- use of synthetic fertilizers
- industrial processes

• Currently, 40% of the world’s landmass is arid, and rising temperatures will turn yet
more of it into desert.
• Changes in the frequency and severity of droughts and floods could pose challenges
for farmers and threaten crop production.
• With less farm produce, demand increases as well as the price.

8
CSU-CAA Supplemental Lecture Notes | CP 102, Rev. 0, 06-01-20
5. Trade Liberalization

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

• A legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote
international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as Tariffs or Quotas.
ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)
• A trade bloc agreement by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations supporting
local manufacturing in all ASEAN countries
China-AFTA Early Harvest Program
• a free trade arrangement under the framework of China-AFTA, designed to accelerate
the implementation of China-ASEAN Economic Cooperation.
Infant Industry argument
• Infant industries in developing countries cannot compete against foreign counterparts
unless they are protected.
• These countries protect their own infant industries through imposition of Tariffs or
Quotas on imported products.
• Assuming that imported rice are cheaper compared to locally produced rice, Trade
liberalization can greatly put Filipino farmers at disadvantage.
• If world prices are high and the volume of imported rice is low, where would we avail
ourselves of rice supply, especially in a dire situation where domestic produce is
inadequate?
• Historically, PH has been a net importer or Rice.
• PH produced a total of 19.3 million tons of palay (12.5 million tons of rice) in 2017.
• About 105 million Filipinos individually consume approx. 110 kg of rice every year
(Bordey et al., 2018).
• Even with 35% tariff rate, Philippine rice is still more expensive than the imported
ones from our ASEAN neighbors such as Thailand and Vietnam.
• The landed cost of imported rice from Vietnam with 25% broken grains is only around
P27/kg including the tariff.

6. Agrarian Reform

CARP (R.A. 6657), or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program

• redistribution of public and private agricultural lands to farmers and farmworkers who
are landless, irrespective of tenurial arrangement.
• redistribution of public and private agricultural lands to farmers and farmworkers who
are landless, irrespective of tenurial arrangement.
• Three decades after the PH gov’t launched agrarian reform in 1988 as its paramount
social justice program, a significant majority of Filipino farmers have yet to own the
land that they have been tilling for ages.
• Farmers consistently posted one of the highest poverty incidences (38.3%) among the
nine basic sectors in the Philippines in 2012 (NSCB).
• The reclassification of lands by landlords and big companies to uses other than food
production, blessed by the court’s opinions harassed its way to the heart of peasant.

9
CSU-CAA Supplemental Lecture Notes | CP 102, Rev. 0, 06-01-20
 • Small farmers of SOCKSARGEN, on the receiving end of rubber tree mono-cropping,
fluctuating prices of rubber, low wages.
• Indigenous People tribes in CARAGA Region carry the burden of being the “Mining
Capital of Asia.

D. Crop Production as a Science, Art and Business

Crop Science - It is concerned with the observation and classification of knowledge concerning
economically cultivated crops and the established of verifiable principles regarding their
growth and development for the purpose of deriving the optimum benefit from them. It is
divided into two areas as follows:
a. Agronomy - deals with the principles and practices of managing field crops and soils

b. Horticulture - deals with gardens and plants within an enclosure. It includes:

• Pomology (fruits)
• Olericulture (vegetables)
• Floriculture (flowers/ornamentals)
• Nursery management
• Landscape gardening

As a science
• Its science is derived from the adoption or application of the basic sciences of
chemistry, mathematics, physics, and from various applied sciences like physiology,
meteorology, anatomy, plant breeding etc.
As an art
• It requires skills to produce crops even with little or no scientific training.
As a business
• Plants are not grown simply to satisfy the needs of man but no realize some profit in
the process of production.

REFERENCES:

Borines N.O. Practices in Crop Production ppt. as of March 22, 2021.

Green Empire: Licensure Examination in Agriculture Reviewer lecture manual for crop
science. (www.facebook.com/GEKnowledgeBank)
LaRouche, Lyndon. "How Shultz and the WTO Destroyed a Green Revolution." How Shultz and
the WTO Destroyed a Green Revolution. EIR News Service, 16 May 2008. Web.
21 Sept. 2015.
"Philippines Agriculture." Encyclopedia of the Nations. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
"Rice and the Green Revolution." Country Studies. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
Tuong, T.P. and B.A.M. Bouman. “Rice Production in Water-Scarce Environments.” 1-24. n.d.
Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

10
CSU-CAA Supplemental Lecture Notes | CP 102, Rev. 0, 06-01-20