The contributions of women in an upland rice-based ecosystem in Kaingan, Ifugao

Date

1989

Abstract

This study evaluates the positive contributions of women to rice yield. The results of the sample survey and labor production model confirm the traditional role that women in Ifugao terraced rice systems have played for centuries. Women's labor contribution in the productivity of the Ifugao rice paddy system is measured and evaluated for all phases of the rice production system. Women works contribute largely towards conservation during the land clearing and land preparation phase. Despite the absence of fertilizer inputs, an average farm size of 0.55 hectares yielded a high 1.6 tons. The multiple log- linear regression function was used to determine the significant association of women labor and selected environmental and socioeconomic parameters with rice yield. Approximately fifty-five percent of the variation in output (rice yield) can be explained by the following explanatory variables: total labor, total conservation labor, cost of seeds, elevation and site. A cost and return analysis per farm has also shown that upland rice terrace farms are profitable with a net return to management of P2,779.00. As gender and age issues, in particular, the role of women in upland rice production have trascended the "sensitizing" phase, a major contribution of this study lies in quantifying actual woman labor contributions within a farm production cum household framework. As women labor contribute significantly to yield improvements, the recent adoption of plow and machines (i.e. hard tractor) in the low elevation areas, for example, has served to decrease total demand for women labor. However, in high elevation areas women labor is expected to predominate since the plow, hand tractor and other machineries are not suited for steep slopes and narrow irregular pond field configurations.

Document Type

Master Thesis

Degree

Master of Science in Environmental Science

College

School of Environmental Science and Management (SESAM)

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