Farmers' participation in the development of location

ASIA LIFE SCIENCES 23(1): 1-18, 2013

The Asian International Journal of Life Sciences

Farmers’ participation in the development of location-specific technologies towards empowerment in Nueva Ecija, Philippines JOEL V. PASCUAL1*, JOSEFINA T. DIZON2, M ARIA A NA T. QUIMBO2, NELSON JOSE VINCENT B. QUERIJERO2 and AURORA M. CORALES1 This study determined the farmers’ participation in the development of locationspecific technologies towards empowerment of individual farmers and their organization. An interview-type study was conducted with 103 farmer-respondents who participated in the JICA-PhilRice Technical Cooperation Project (TCP3) in Rizal, Cabanatuan City, and San Antonio, Nueva Ecija. Data were obtained using interview schedule for the farmers and secondary data were obtained from the project implementers, local government units, and other stakeholders. Rating scale was used to determine the level of farmers’ participation in the TCP3 activities, including the individual and organizational empowerment. Descriptive analysis, Pearson’s correlation, Cramer’s V, and regression analysis were employed to analyze the data. Findings of the study showed that the active participation of the farmers in the different project activities contributed to the empowerment of their organization to sustain the project activities, continuous adoption of location-specific technologies, and in buildingup their organization. Result also showed that the farmers’ participation in the monitoring and evaluation phase had a moderately positive correlation with involvement in the decisionmaking and weak but positive relationship with enhancement of knowledge and increased self-confidence for the individual empowerment. The implementation phase also had positive relationship with the strengthening of the farmers’ organization, establishment of linkages, and improvement of the ability in the decision making process. In general, this study may serve as guide in implementing developmental activities promoting location-specific rice and rice-based technologies to attain rice self-sufficiency. Keywords: farmers’ participation, individual and organizational empowerment, locationspecific technologies, rice farming, TCP3 project, technology promotion, Philippines Technology Management and Services Division, Philippine Rice Research Institute, Central Experiment Station, Maligaya, Science City of Muñoz, 3119 Nueva Ecija, Philippines 2 College of Public Affairs and Development, University of the Philippines Los Baños, College 4031, Laguna, Philippines *Corresponding author: e-mail – [email protected] Received 10 May 2013; Accepted 27 June 2013 Printed in the Philippines ©Rushing Water Publishers Ltd. 2014 1

Pascual et al. 2014 INTRODUCTION

Rice production in the Philippines has not been able to cope with population growth and the widening gap between rice production and utilization continues to increase. From 1995 to 2000, the average annual growth rate of the country’s population was 2.36% with a population of 76.50 million in 2000; however, the population growth rate was reduced to 2.04% from 2000 to 2007 (NSCB, 2007). In 2006, it was projected that the country had a rice deficit of 928,942 metric tons (MT) from the total 12.9 million annual rice requirements (PDI Volume 23, No. 134, p. 6, 2006). Through the years, the government has been implementing various programs to increase rice production in the country and attain rice self-sufficiency. Despite the increase in rice yields brought about by the use of high yielding varieties, good quality seeds, and other new technologies, the supply can hardly cope with increasing demand of the teeming population. It is also aggravated by the decreasing area devoted to rice production. As such, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) extended assistance to the Philippine Government through the Department of Agriculture (DA) – Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) for more than 15 years by means of Grant-Aid (1989 to 1991) and Technical Cooperation Projects (TCP1 from 1992 to 1997; TCP2 from 1997 to 2002). The grant-aid was meant to improve the research capability of PhilRice’s Central Experiment Station (CES) in Nueva Ecija, especially on the development of new high-yielding rice variety and farm machineries for small-scale farmers. As a result of the TCP1 and TCP2, the technologies on rice production as well as human resources and facilities had been remarkably improved. For the farmers to benefit from the accomplishments of TCP1 and TCP2, the governments of Japan and the Philippines agreed to implement TCP3, which is the “Development and Promotion of Location-Specific Integrated High-Yielding Rice and Rice-based Technologies” from 2005 to 2009. The project aimed to increase the farm productivity and profitability of farmers, and enhance the capability of the LGU extension workers on technology promotion. To strengthen the support to the national rice self-sufficiency master plan, the DA-PhilRice has scaled-up the project strategies utilized by the technical cooperation project (JICA-TCP3) by making them more location-specific or customized to the farmers through the Location-Specific Technology Development (LSTD) Program. Moreover, PhilRice also exerted more efforts by supporting the commercialization of technologies. Some of these support to commercialization include the seed production of popular and new hybrids and inbred varieties, e.g. for planting in high-yielding areas or for stress-prone environments like submergence, drought and saline-prone areas; promotion of mechanized farm operations, promotion of rice-based products and information materials. TCP3 was implemented as a set of technology promotion strategies to ensure the speedy and effective transfer of these location-specific technologies to the farmers. It used demonstration and learning fields, and weekly farmers’ field school (FFS) that included lectures and practicum with topics coinciding with the current

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Asia Life Sciences 23(1) 2014

Development of location-specific technologies stage of the farmers’ crops. It involved two sets of farmers: the farmer-partners (FPs) who managed the technology demonstration farm (TDF) that required all the technologies advocated by the project and the participating farmers (PFs) who cultivated fields around the TDF and maintained farmers’ learning fields (FLF) where they had the option to choose and implement a combination of the technologies advocated in the TDF. The project was composed of project management committees that implemented the different phases of the program, and the committees consisted of technical personnel with different areas of expertise. The project’s expected output include developing suitable input and location-specific technology packages and establishing technical support systems focused on rice technology in all the project areas. In all of these learning and technology promotion activities under the project, farmers’ participation contributed highly to the project’s success. Thus, this study focused on the assessment of the farmers’ participation in the implementation of the TCP3 project activities. It looked into how the farmers and their organizations were empowered to achieve the goals of developing locationspecific technologies towards increased productivity and profitability of farmers. Also, this study provided insights on the different factors affecting the farmers’ participation, and empowerment of the project participants at the individual and organizational levels.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was conducted in two municipalities and one city of Nueva Ecija, namely: Rizal, San Antonio, and Cabanatuan City. These were the core sites of the TCP3 project for the development and promotion of location-specific technology in the irrigated rice areas in Nueva Ecija from 2005 to 2009. TCP3 participating farmers were the respondents of the study. These farmers are those who graduated from the season-long training course of the TCP3 project from the three municipalities of Nueva Ecija. The training course was also known as the “season-long training on rice production”, which used the PalayCheck System as the learning platform to develop LST packages across locations or ecosystems. These farmers also actively participated in the other project activities such as establishment and management of the technology demonstration fields, farmers’ field day and forum, cross visits, end-season review and planning, among other things. A complete enumeration of the participating farmers in the three sites, namely, 40 in Rizal, 33 in Cabanatuan City and 30 in San Antonio was conducted. Hence, a total of 103 respondents comprised the population. The names of the farmerrespondents were derived from the list of participating farmers obtained from the project implementers and farmers’ associations. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered from primary and secondary sources. Data gathering was conducted by hired enumerators who performed the survey among the farmer-respondents. It was done through personal interview using the interview schedule, which was supplemented by group discussions and field observations. Primary data were collected from the participating farmers,


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Pascual et al. 2014 extension workers and project personnel. Secondary data were obtained from the project implementers, local government units and other stakeholders who participated in the project. Most of the analysis used descriptive statistics based on the respondents and key informant feedbacks, observation, and secondary data and information. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentages, means (measure of central tendency), range and standard deviation were used to describe the data generated from the structured interviews. Correlations were done to determine associations among the variables used in this study. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (Pearson’s r) was used to measure the relationship between interval variables, while Cramer’s V was applied to determine the association comparing several variables and categories at the nominal level having different number of rows and columns using the data arranged in a frequency table. Regression analysis was also used to determine the effect of the sociodemographic characteristics of the farmer-respondents and their participation in the project on the individual and organizational empowerment. The standardized beta coefficients were considered to show the ranking of the important variables (predictors) for the individual and organizational empowerment. On the ranking of important variables (predictors), it means that the higher the value of beta coefficient, the higher its effect or relationship to the dependent variables. The correlation coefficient (r) was determined to measure the strength and direction of the linear relationship between two variables. Statistical test of significance was not used in this study as the complete survey of the total population was obtained.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Socio-demographic characteristics of farmer-respondents. The study showed that the average age of the respondents was 56.43 years, with their ages ranging from 25 to 89 years old. Most of them were male and majority of the farmers finished or at least reached elementary education (38.8%). On the tenure status, 59 (57.3%) of the respondents owned the land they were cultivating. Sixteen (15.5%) were tenants, nine (8.7%) were leaseholders, five (4.9%) were mortgage and 14 (13.6%) had multiple tenure arrangements. On the average, the farmer-respondents had been in rice farming for almost 28 years. Forty-two (40.8%) farmers had more than 30 years of farming experience, 38 (36.9%) had been farming for 20 to 30 years now and 23 (22.3%) farmers had below 20 years of farming experience. Almost two-thirds (65%) of the respondents said that they were tilling 1 to 3 hectares of rice fields. More than 28% stated that they are farming more than 3 hectares and the rest (7.7%) had less than 1 hectare of land. It was also noticed that the farmer-respondents had an average of 3.38 hectares devoted to rice farming as their primary source of livelihood. From their farmlands, the respondents harvested an average of 119.17 cavans per hectare during the dry season and 80.34 cavans per hectare during the wet

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Development of location-specific technologies season. The difference in the number of cavans harvested was due to the good and favorable weather conditions during dry season cropping. Aside from rice production, some of the farmer-respondents also engaged in vegetable production (14.6%), fruit production (8.7%) and livestock production (27.2%). Other than these, some of them were also in business (17.5%) and tricycle operation (11.1%). Some were receiving remittances from abroad and pensions or honorarium with percentages of 28.2 and 8.7%, respectively. All of the respondents became members of the farmers’ association because of their participation in the TCP3 project. Through the farmers’ partnership with the project, their initial association organized for the project was transformed into a full-fledged farmers’ cooperative. Majority of the respondents (97.1%) were active members, and about 11.7 percent were serving as the officers of the farmers’ organization. Farmers also cited that they joined the TCP3 project because they expected to learn new technologies and practices in rice production (97.1%). More than half (52.4%) of the respondents expected that they could gain access to newly released rice varieties upon joining the project, while 63% of the farmers said that they joined the TCP3 project to obtain higher yield and income from rice farming. Project mechanism with the participation of farmers towards empowerment. Community participation is an essential element in the success of any communitybased development program. In the general context of rural development projects, the farming household is considered as an economic unit in development. In the case of TCP3 Project, the farmers’ groups were involved in the different phases of the project management such as planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. The farmers’ participation in the project’s activities enhanced their knowledge and skills on rice production. It also improved their farm’s productivity and profitability, and sustained the utilization of location-specific technology packages. However, the nature and extent of their participation in the project depend on their socioeconomic characteristics such as age, gender, civil status, educational attainment, household size, tenure status, farm size, years in farming and sources of income. Farmers’ active participation in the development and promotion of locationspecific technologies will lead to the success of the project, and in return, will improve their crop management practices and achieve the full benefits from the project such as increase in productivity and income. As an outcome of the farmers’ partnership in the development of the LST package, their initial farmers’ group organized for the project into a farmers’ organization or full-fledged farmers’ cooperative will be empowered. Farmers’ participation leads towards people empowerment that enhances their confidence and decision-making to strengthen their organizations for the sustainability of the project activities. LST package coupled with innovative technology promotion strategy will enhance the capacity of farmers in addressing the problems and concerns in rice farming across different locations. The conceptual model of the study shows the project implementation as a process for farmers’ participation in the development of location-specific technologies towards the empowerment of individual farmers and their organization (Figure 1).


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Pascual et al. 2014 Strengthening of the farmers’ organization can assure continuous promotion and adoption of technologies, and established linkage for resource generation to sustain the economic activities of the organization.

Figure 1. Conceptual framework of the study. Farmers’ participation in the TCP3 project. The level of farmers’ participation in the planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of activities is highly important to the success of the project. Based on the results of the study, the farmers participated actively in the different pre-planning activities from project orientation, identification of the problems, focus group discussion, and surveys up to the stakeholders’ workshop. The very high level of farmers’ participation could be attributed to the benefits that they expected to get from joining the project. From the rating scale of 1-5, the respondents’ level of participation during the planning of activities for the project ranged from 4.47 to 4.51, which indicated that they have the positive outlook towards the project regardless of cropping season, and thus resulting in “very high” participation among the participating farmers of the project. It was also observed that the level of participation of the farmerrespondents during the implementation phase of the project was “very high” and it was sustained up to the strengthening of their cooperative or farmers’ association.

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Development of location-specific technologies The respondents’ belief that the project could help them learn new technologies that may result in higher yields and income, could be the motivation that sustained the very high level of participation even during the monitoring and evaluation phase of the project. Benefits derived by the farmers from the TCP3 project. The members of the TCP3 project highly benefited from the services that the project offered to them (Table 1). The farmers believed that they have availed themselves of the services that the project offered such as knowledge on location-specific technologies, provision of technical assistance, field visitations, and access to quality seeds and farm machineries. These benefits obtained from the project through their organization led them to further strengthen their involvement with the project to gain more support for their farming and organizational strengthening. Table 1. Level of benefits derived by the farmers from the TCP3 Project. Average Rating (1-3)

Qualitative Interpretation

Enhanced knowledge/skills

2.92

High

Adoption of appropriate technologies

2.84

High

Increase in yield

2.86

High

Increase in income

2.83

High

Availability of information materials

2.79

High

Provision of technical assistance

2.81

High

Visit other model farms

2.72

High

Strengthened farmers’ group

2.79

High

Access to latest rice variety

2.89

High

Access to farm machinery and equipment

2.72

High

Benefits

The farmer-respondents were consistent in telling that they have benefited from the project, which was manifested in the increase of yield and income. From the population, 26.2% of the respondents agreed that their yield increased through the adoption of appropriate technologies in their farm. Moreover, their knowledge and skills in rice production were enhanced in terms of seed selection, proper selection and application of fertilizer, proper land preparation, proper pest control and utilization of new technologies in their farm. Results of the study showed that activities implemented by the TCP3 were effective as manifested in the dissemination and adoption of the technology by the farmer-participants. All project activities were helpful in enhancing the farmers’ knowledge and skills on rice science and technology, increasing farmers’ productivity and income, and making it an effective strategy in the development of location-specific technology packages. The yield performance of the participating farmers after the project implementation was analyzed and compared with the baseline yield that was obtained before the project implementation. Table 2 shows that from baseline yield of 64 cavans/ha during the wet season, yield increased to 85 cavans/ha after the


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Pascual et al. 2014 project or about a 32.81% yield increase. During the dry season (after the project), an average yield of 125 cavans/ ha was attained. Comparing this yield with the baseline yield of 94 cavans/ha during the dry season, a yield increase of 1.55 tons/ ha was attained through the use of location-specific technologies. Yield performance of the participating farmers shows that they had achieved the objective of the project, which is to increase the productivity by at least one ton/ ha during the wet and dry season croppings. This was supported by the results of the TCP3 joint terminal evaluation in 2009, when the project was given a highly positive rating as a result of achieving the project purpose in terms of yield increase. The indicator of one ton/ha annual yield increase was achieved in all TCP3 sites in Nueva Ecija. The project recorded an annual yield increased of 1.37 ton/ha for the first year and 1.43 ton/ha for the second year of project implementation, or at an average of 1.41 ton/ha (PhilRice Terminal Evaluation Report 2009). Table 2. Yield performance of participating farmers before and after the project. Cropping Seasons

Average Yield Average Yield Increase (cav/ha) % Increase Cavans/ hectare Tons/ hectare

Wet Season Before the project

64

After the project

85

32.81

21

1.05

32.98

31

1.55

Dry Season Before the project

94

After the project

125

Farmers’ contribution to the development of location-specific technologies. During the development and promotion of the location-specific technologies, the farmers actively participated in the field observations and monitoring as well as in the sharing of opinions with regard to comparing the technologies they have used in their usual farming activities. Apparently, the farmers had an option to devote part of their land as a learning and demonstration site for the farmers’ field school applying the technologies they learned from the regular training conducted by the project. In their respective learning fields, the farmers observed the performance of the technologies promoted by the project. These observations can later serve as basis in choosing and developing package of technologies appropriate in their area. As an outcome of the farmers’ participation in the development of LST package under the TCP3 project, farmers were able to organize themselves and formed a full-fledged farmers’ cooperative. Through this cooperative, they were able to sustain the project activities especially the promotion and utilization of the LST package, and strengthened the capital mobilization to improve the economic activities of the organization to provide more services to their members. They were linked to some private companies, financing and research institutions to cater the needs of its members in terms of capital, capacity enhancement, and production inputs for their rice farming activities.

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Development of location-specific technologies TCP3 components that became successful in the community. One of the strategies of the project was the implementation of the season-long training course, as primary means of transferring or disseminating agricultural technologies to the farmers (Table 3). This training induced changes in knowledge, skills, and ultimately the behavior of the farmer-beneficiaries. Based on the result, the TCP3 project was successful in terms of teaching improved rice production technologies to the farmers. With these, farmers have achieved higher farm productivity and reduced production cost. Moreover, the farmers’ organization resulted in higher cooperation among members. With the unity and cooperation of the farmer-participants, the technology development and promotion in the area became successful. Technology demonstration fields were established on the premise that the farmers can adopt a technology package and any of its components when the farmers see the advantages of the new technology over their own practices. Table 3. TCP3 components that became successful in the community. Particular

Frequency* Percent

Learning and adoption of improved rice technologies

63

61.2

Increase in productivity

27

26.2

Establishment of unity and cooperation among farmers

22

21.4

Farmers’ association became a cooperative to sustain the project

20

19.4

Successful technology promotion in the area

16

15.5

Increase in income/reduction in production costs

12

11.7

Effective training for the farmers

5

4.9

Provision of financial assistance to farmers

2

1.9

*multiple responses

Another important outcome of the TCP3 is that the farmers’ associations formed for the purpose of the project are now registered cooperatives. The farmermembers are now enjoying the benefits from the developed location-specific technology package, production loan (cash and inputs), palay trading, provision of farm machineries and equipment, access to latest rice varieties, capacity enhancement, and technical assistance. Empowerment of the individual farmers through their participation in the TCP3 project. The study showed that majority of the farmer-respondents acquired the necessary knowledge and skills from the TCP3 project that resulted in higher yield and income. Results further showed that the average response of the farmers on their increase in the knowledge they gained from the project was 4.32, which means that they have gained “much” from the project. Farmers (87.4%) said that new technologies and knowledge they gained had improved their farming activities. On the farmers’ attitudes towards the skills gained from TCP3 project, they “strongly agreed” that the project developed and improved their farming skills. They affirmed that they are now confident that they have enough skills in improving their farming activities. Although the respondents admitted that before the project they


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Pascual et al. 2014 already had some skills in farming, they thought that these were not enough to improve their rice production. They needed modern and appropriate technologies addressing their concerns and problems in rice farming, which were made possible through their participation in the TCP3 project. On the other hand, farmers admitted that before participating in the TCP3 project, they were not confident with their farming skills. After joining the project and acquiring the knowledge and skills they need, farmers became confident that they can do better in their farming activities as reflected by the obtained “high” and “very high” rating for their level of self-confidence. As a result, their decisionmaking ability was also improved since they were highly involved in the discussion of their field problems, and some issues regarding the project implementation. Moreover, the study also found that majority of the respondents agreed that they have improved the welfare of their household based on the benefits obtained from the project. As the project gave the farmers the opportunity to improve their farming activities, their yield increased resulting in higher family income and additional household assets. The farmer-respondents were able to provide their families the basic needs such as food and education. They mentioned that the time they spent with their families in doing leisure activities increased as evident by the “moderate” rating through their involvement in the TCP3 project. Organizational empowerment through the TCP3 project. The strengthening of the farmers’ association became helpful in sustaining the project activities and establishing economic activities to address the needs of its members. Majority of the respondents agreed that their farmers’ organization was formed and registered as cooperative through the commitment of the participating farmers and guidance of the TCP3 project implementers. As a result, the farmers’ organization is presently governed with policies and rules being implemented by the management of their organization. Through TCP3 project, the farmers’ organization had been offering services to its members like production loans, access to latest rice varieties and provision to free seeds, and the promotion and learning of improved rice technologies through the conduct of trainings and establishment of demonstration fields. In addition, medical and emergency assistance were also offered to the members, community rat campaign rendered by the organization in the community, and some respondents stated the plan of their cooperative to go into farm inputs and palay trading. With the founding of their organization, the farmers agreed that linkages and networks were established by their organization with some agencies and institutions. As a result, their organization expanded and sustained its operations, which was started during the TCP3 project implementation. They were linked to some private companies and financing institutions to cater the needs of its members in terms of capital and production inputs for their rice farming activities, and developed their own economic activities. Moreover, their connection to some research institutions through the local agriculture office provided them more opportunity to latest technology innovations and capacity enhancement. Farmer-members agreed that their capabilities in management of their organization were improved by formulating plans, implementing its own economic

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Development of location-specific technologies activities, and monitoring of the management operation addressing the needs of its members. With the TCP3 project, the management capability of the farmers’ organization was strengthened resulting in higher confidence to decide without consulting entities outside their organization. Correlation analysis between farmers’ socio-demographic characteristics and the farmers’ participation in the TCP3 activities and farmers’ empowerment. The study determined the correlations of the farmer-respondents’ socioeconomic characteristics with their participation in the TCP3 activities, such as pre-planning, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. It was found that most of the variables under the socioeconomic characteristics had positive and important relationships with the different activities of the TCP3 project. These socioeconomic factors also showed important relationship with the empowerment of the individual farmers and their organization, especially in enhancing their knowledge and skills towards location-specific technologies, decision-making, self-confidence, improved productivity and welfare, and strengthening of their farmers’ organization. The results of the study also showed that sex, civil status, and educational background of the respondents had weak to moderate but positive relationship with the indicators of individual empowerment. As farming was dominated by male population, this implies that they are more persistent to improve their skills in rice farming. Since majority of the respondents were married, the results imply that this can be the reason that encouraged farmers to enhance their knowledge and self-confidence in doing rice farming. The involvement of farmers in the decision-making process during the project implementation enhanced their abilities in managing their farm for their individual empowerment and family welfare. Likewise, educational background implies that indeed education is a contributory factor to farmers’ empowerment by enhancing their knowledge through the nonformal education provided by the project and in providing the farmers opportunities to decide for themselves. Moreover, tenure status also had positive correlations with all the indicators of individual empowerment. This implies that tenure status can greatly affect the participation of the farmers in the activities of the TCP3 project. Since most of the farmers were owners of the land that they were cultivating, they can easily manage their time and easily decide on matters related to the improvement of their farming activities considering the benefits that they may obtain from the project. Also, rice farming serves as the primary occupation of the respondents. This can be their motivation in increasing their self-confidence in farming through the acquired knowledge and skills from the project for the improvement of their household welfare. Correlation analysis between farmers’ participation in the TCP3 project and individual empowerment. By studying the effect of the farmers’ participation to the different phases of the TCP3 project to the individual empowerment (Table 4), the study showed that the monitoring and evaluation phase had a moderately positive relationship with the involvement in the decision-making (r = 0.412) and weak but positive relationship with the enhancement of knowledge


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Pascual et al. 2014 (r = 0.247) and increased of self-confidence (r = 0.290). This could be attributed to the activities under the monitoring and evaluation which make the farmers more knowledgeable and confident. These activities include presenting feedbacks that confirm the activities that they have done on their farms were appropriate which could result to the increased confidence level among the farmer-respondents. This is supported by Stephens and Natpracha’s study (1991) who said that participation is a process by which people should be involved in all stages for their own development and empowerment, studying their own situation and making decision in research, planning, implementing and managing, monitoring and evaluating, and deciding on the distribution of benefits to ensure equitable sharing. Table 4. Correlation between farmers’ participation in the TCP3 project and individual empowerment. Empowerment (Individual level)

Pre-Planning

TCP3 Activities Planning Implementation

Monitoring and Evaluation

Enhanced knowledge

0.085

0.072

0.318

0.247

Improved skills

0.090

0.128

0.023

0.114

Increased self-confidence

0.122

0.132

0.177

0.290

Involvement in decision-making

0.237

0.194

0.309

0.412

Improved welfare

-0.009

-0.020

-0.187

-0.053

Furthermore, the implementation phase of the TCP3 showed a weak and moderate but positive relationship with the enhancement of knowledge (r = 0.318), involvement in the decision-making (r = 0.309), and increased self-confidence (r = 0.177). This implies that farmers were indeed applying what they have learned from the project. In the process, the farmers have also participated well in the decision-making process and increased their confidence level since it is their farm that would be greatly affected if they will arrive at a wrong decision. In addition, the pre-planning and planning activities proved that these activities contributed in strengthening the ability of the farmers to decide as regards their farming activities. Effective planning would also enhance the farming skills and self-confidence of the farmers in doing rice farming activities, thus contributing to the improvement of their productivity and household’s welfare. Correlation analysis between farmers’ participation in the TCP3 project and organizational empowerment. The result of the study shows that the planning phase helps strengthen the farmers’ organization and its establishment of networks/ linkages (Table 5). This implies that during the stage of the strengthening of the organization, it is evident that it has been reinforced by effective planning, which was also manifested with the establishment of its networks and linkages.

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Development of location-specific technologies The implementation phase of the project shows to have positive relationship with the strengthening of the farmers’ organization (r = 0.238), establishment of networks/linkages (r = 0.206) and improvement of the ability in the decision making process (r = 0.197). This means that the TCP3 implementation activities could improve the decision making ability of the organization and its establishment of networks toward the strengthening of the farmers’ organization. Moreover, the monitoring and evaluation was found to have positive but weak relationship with the strengthening of the farmers’ organization (r = 0.275). It was also found to have correlation with the improvement of the decision-making process (r = 0.210) and establishment of linkages (r = 0.130) by the farmers’ organization. This means that the active participation of the farmers in the different project activities may contribute to the empowerment of their organization to sustain the project activities, continuous adoption of location-specific technologies, and in building-up their organization. Table 5. Correlation between farmers’ participation in the TCP3 project and organizational empowerment. Empowerment Pre(Organizational level) Planning

TCP3 Activities Planning

Implementation

Monitoring and Evaluation

Strengthened farmers’ organization

0.166

0.201

0.238

0.275

Established networks/ linkages

0.163

0.200

0.206

0.130

Enhanced selfmanagement capability

0.104

0.111

0.085

0.044

Improved decisionmaking

0.121

0.163

0.197

0.210

Navarro (1993) supports the results of the study when he mentioned that the value of empowerment through viable and effective participation of community organization stems from the increased capability of the members of the rural community like farmers to influence decisions affecting their lives and welfare. Navarro (1993) added that through farmers’ participation in agricultural development, organizational empowerment will be achieved through greater access to production, participation in project planning and implementation, competition, and establishment of marketing network and other linkages. Regression analysis between independent variables and empowerment at the individual and organizational level. Regression results showed that the organizational empowerment can be explained by the socio-demographic characteristics of the farmers, which include age, sex, civil status, educational background, household size, primary occupation, tenure status, years in farming and total farm area. Organizational empowerment was also affected by the farmers’ level of project participation from pre-planning, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and the aspects of individual empowerment. The data


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Pascual et al. 2014 obtained from the regression analysis (Table 6) show that the independent variables (predictors) had substantial positive relationship with organizational empowerment (r = 0.598), and about 36% of the variability in the organizational empowerment has been explained by the independent variables. Meanwhile, the remaining 64% may be due to other factors not included in the study. In addition, the result of regression analysis through the computed standardized beta coefficients shows the ranking of the important factors for organizational empowerment. The ranking of important variables (predictors) means the higher the value of beta coefficients, the higher its effect or relationship to the dependent variables. First in the rank was the decision making (0.433), followed by planning (0.267), project implementation (0.245), and farmers’ level of knowledge (0.187). This means that these variables had substantial effect on the organizational empowerment by strengthening the management and operation of the farmers’ association, establishment of more networks or linkages, improved their decision making, and the continuous use of location-specific technology packages by its members. Table 6. Regression analysis between independent variables and organizational empowerment.

a

Model

R

1

0.598a

R Square Adjusted R Square 0.357

Std. Error of the Estimate

0.227

0.37549

Predictors: (Constant), Age, Gender, Civil Status, Educ. Background, Household Size, Primary Occupation, Tenure Status, Years in Farming, Total Farm Area, Pre-Planning, Planning, Implementation, Monitoring/ Evaluation, Knowledge, Skills, Self-Confidence, Decision-Making

Meanwhile, regression analysis also showed that the individual empowerment can also be explained by the farmers’ socio-demographic characteristics and their level of participation in the project from pre-planning, planning, implementation up to monitoring and evaluation (Table 7). Results further showed that the independent variables had substantial positive relationships (r = 0.499) with the empowerment at the individual (farmers) level, and it shows that 25% of variability in the individual empowerment can explained by the combined effects of the independent variables, while the remaining 75% of the variation of individual empowerment was due to other factors that were not included in the study. Table 7. Regression analysis between independent variables and individual empowerment.

a

Model

R

1

0.499

a

R Square

Adjusted R Square

Std. Error of the Estimate

0.249

0.138

0.27883

Predictors: (Constant), Age, Sex, Civil Status, Educ. Background, Household Size, Primary Occupation, Tenure Status, Years in Farming, Total Farm Area, Pre-Planning, Planning, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation

In terms of ranking of the variables, monitoring and evaluation had the largest effect on individual empowerment (0.448) followed by the tenure status of the farmers (0.161), years in farming (0.118), and household size (0.144). Along with other

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Development of location-specific technologies variables, these factors contribute to the empowerment of the individual farmers by way of improving their knowledge and skills, increasing their self-confidence, more involvement in decision-making and improving the farmers’ welfare. On an individual level, it shows empowerment as a way of building confidence, insight and understanding, developing personal skills, and being able to analyze situations and communicate more effectively with others. Being empowered presupposes some level of common knowledge and skills, emotional maturity and access to appropriate information and know-how, and it implies to other views and behaviors.

CONCLUSION

Location-specific technologies are among the recognized development strategies that were implemented through farmers’ participation in terms of attaining the country’s rice self-sufficiency. It consists of recommended technologies and farmers’ best practices appropriate in the local conditions or across different ecosystems to achieve high yield rice production. No agricultural development program would be successful without full participation by the farmers. Therefore, participation is the key aspect in the implementation of any agricultural project. The project strategies and components implemented by the TCP3 became effective to gain the participation of farmers in the community by allowing them to understand their needs and problems in their rice farming activities. The development of location-specific technology package is a suitable technology promotion system to improve farms productivity. The level of farmers’ participation in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation activities is highly important to the success of the TCP3 project. Farmers had enhanced their skills, knowledge and ultimately the behavior especially in developing actions or decisions on the different cropping activities on their farms. They exchanged ideas and best practices in rice production. They also applied the new technologies learned from the project. As an outcome of their commitment and participation in the project, farmers were empowered and united to form a farmers’ association such as the Cooperative to address their common needs in farming and to sustain the project activities. The project contributed to the strong collaboration between the farmers’ association and other stakeholders in the full implementation of the project activities. It also enhanced the farmers’ capacity in managing technology demonstration farms. The farmers were given a chance to reorganize and form into a farmers’ cooperative, enhance their capacities in rice science and technology, organizational and project management. Further, the farmers learned to forge partnership with development stakeholders, manage their own affairs and sustain the project gains with minimal interventions after the project completion for their own welfare. In community-initiated activities such as TCP3, local people participated actively and were directly involved in the development process of initiating an activity such as in planning, mobilizing, attending meetings, exchanging ideas, decision-making, and strengthening of farmers’ associations. Basically, groups that utilized group meetings or discussions served as an instrument to facilitate


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Pascual et al. 2014 the organizing and decision-making processes, encouraged wider members’ participation, and this led to more opportunities for individual empowerment to take place. Consequently, participation contributes to people’s empowerment. It is part of a process which develops and gives rise to empowerment. The study showed that the group activities could be empowering and it facilitated empowerment when members were given the chance to be directly involved in the activities. This direct involvement meant that they had the right to determine or to influence decisions which benefited them or the community at large. Regardless of the type of group and its composition or specialized activities, the farmers had developed and practiced group discussions, meetings and planning as the basis of their group initiatives. The TCP3 can be considered as a valuable project as it has helped farmers and their organization to participate and evidently become empowered while utilizing location-specific technologies. However, it can be recommended that farmers should be comprehensively involved in all phases of the project cycle management from planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, so that they would be able to get immediate and real empowerment from the project. Also, there must be a strong cooperation and coordination among the partner-institutions and group of farmers or organizations for effective and efficient project implementation. The level of farmers’ participation in planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation is correlated with the empowerment of the farmers and their organization. It is therefore recommended that future related studies should consider other possible factors influencing the empowerment of the individual farmers and their organization in implementing such developmental projects. While implementing agricultural development projects, project implementers should also consider not only the development and promotion of technologies, but also more strategies and mechanism for peoples empowerment especially the farmers and their organization for the welfare of the local communities. Further, the project processes and strategies documented and implemented by the TCP3 project may serve as guide for the local government units, research institutions and other government agencies in implementing developmental activities and in promoting location-specific rice and rice-based technologies. With these strategies, our government through the Department of Agriculture will make the most effective strategies and support so that the goal of rice self-sufficiency will be attained the soonest time.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank the Philippine Rice Research Institute for providing funds for this research study. Grateful appreciation also goes to the Officers and Members of TCP3-PART Agbannawag, TCP3 Lagare Multi-Purpose Cooperative Inc. and San Mariano Farmers’ Multi-Purpose Cooperative for providing the necessary information and support during the conduct of this study.

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