The Effects of Vermicompost Adoption on the Productivity and Profitability of Selected Vegetable Farms in San Pablo Laguna, 2021

Date

6-2022

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics

College

College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Charis Mae T. Neric

Committee Member

Charis Mae T. Neric, Julieta A. Delos Reyes, Agham C. Cuevas

Abstract

The study assessed the effects of vermicompost fertilizer adoption on the profitability and productivity of selected vegetable farms in San Pablo City, Laguna. The specific objectives were to: describe the socio-economic characteristics, farm profile, behavioral factors, and resistance to change factors of the vegetable farmers who use vermicompost fertilizer and the vegetable farmers who use chemical-based fertilizer; compare the productivity of farms that use vermicompost fertilizer and farms that use chemical-based fertilizer; identify the factors that affect the adoption of vermicompost fertilizer on vegetable farms; and identify the production problems encountered by those who are adopting vermicompost and chemical-based fertilizer. A total of 80 vegetable farmers were randomly selected and interviewed using a pre-tested questionnaire, 40 of them are vermicompost fertilizer users and 40 are chemical-based fertilizer users.

Results showed that the vegetable farmers are male, married, with smaller household size, older, have high educational attainment, less experienced in vegetable farming, with smaller farm area for vegetable production, have farms located in lowland, owner, few number of laborers, with market outlets, have short distance to market, with few memberships to associations, high number of seminars attended, highly satisfied in vermicompost, perceived vermicompost fertilizer as less effective in yield, perceived vermicompost fertilizer with same pest occurrence, perceived vermicompost fertilizer use as equally laborious. It was also concluded that farmers with high satisfaction score and perceived vermicompost fertilizer as equally effective are negatively associated with the cognitive rigidity of resistance to change factors. The farmers who have higher educational attainment, higher years in vegetable production, older, owners of their land, larger household size, larger farm area dedicated to vegetable farming, chose traders as their market outlet, longer distance to market, higher number of memberships to associations, and high number of seminars attended have positive statistical significance in terms of the association to the resistance to change factors. The net farm income earned by the vermicompost fertilizer users and chemical-based fertilizer users was PhP14,081.50 and PhP33,930.23, respectively. The findings imply that chemical-based fertilizer users are more profitable and more efficient at converting sales into actual profit. For productivity, sitaw and okra yield using chemical-based fertilizer was statistically significantly higher than using vermicompost fertilizer. Furthermore, the variables including years of education, total farm area dedicated to vegetable production, number of seminars, number of membership to association, and resistance to change were influencers of the decision of farmers to adopt vermicompost fertilizer. The major production problems encountered by farmers include: unfavourable weather conditions, inconsistent availability of buyers, unstable access to supply of inputs, lack of necessary farm records, and amount of rejected produce due to lack of post-harvest assurance or facility that could ensure quality.

Given the results, the following were recommended: acquisition of appropriate post-harvest equipment for strict quality control measures; continuous synergy among local government units’ vegetable farmers, associations, and market outlets; and extension of the analysis to longer period to determine and capture the precise performance of the vegetable farms.

Language

English

LC Subject

Vermicompost

Location

UPLB College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Call Number

LG 993.5 2022 A14 R43

Document Type

Thesis

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