Economic analysis of rice farming under differential tenurial arrangements in Sibalom, Antique

Abstract

This study was undertaken in order to acquire informations about the effects of tenurial arrangments on the productivity and profitability of rice farms in Sibalom, Antique, from the operators view point. The study found out that the practices of rice farms did not essentially vary among farms of different tenure arrangements, though some slight differences had been discovered. Furthermore, it was also discovered that tenurial arrangement greatly affected the distribution of gains from farming. Though share-tenanted farms proved to be the most profitable from the operators point of view, the conpensation that the operators received were quite inadequate to compensate the cost in using owned inputs. Moreover, other tenurial arrangements, leasehold and owner-operated, revealed to be less profitable than the one mentioned earlier. In terms of its effect on productivity, tenurial arrangements were found to explain an insignificant variation in the farms output. The study concluded that tenurial arrangements did really have a significant effect on productivity and the production practices of rice farmers, though in the profitability side, it proved to be otherwise. Of the problems presented, the emergence of rats and the golden kuhol pestilence in the rice fields were pointed out as the primary reasons for the decline in the productivity of rice farms in Sibalom, Antique. Aside from the propagation of government support programs and the transformation and empowerment of rice farmer cooperatives, the study also recommended that a closer look on share-tenancy must be done by the goverment so as to eliminate its equity undesirability, instead of outlawing the said tenurial arrangement which proved, in this study, to be the most efficient tenurial arrangement in rice farming.