Crowdfunding Experiences of Selected Rice Farmers in the Province of Laguna

Date

7-2020

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness Management

College

College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Renen Szilardo C. De Guzman

Committee Member

Renen Szilardo C. De Guzman,

Abstract

This research paper aims to document experiences of rice farmers in crowdfunding, an alternative financial mechanism. While the support subsystem in the Philippines has provided several funding and capital sources, a huge number of farmers still experience challenges in securing and accessing credit. Literature supported the idea that credit constraints were due to reasons such as the inability to comply with requirements, bad credit history, or high interest rates which have limited the farmer’s propensity to borrow, and also have affected their productivity and profitability. Rice farmers are continuously seeking for funding sources that would allow them to finance their farm operations. The borrowed money were used exclusively for their farms since cultivating rice indicates higher production costs. With two cropping seasons, rice farmers also need to secure financing for them to maintain their farms. In the light of these matters, a new way of acquiring loans has been made available through crowdfunding platforms.

This work contributes to further broaden the current knowledge of crowdfunding. In this context, this paper’s preliminary attempt was to determine the experiences of farmers with regards to crowdfunding. It also identified the farmers who are engaged in crowdfunding, and described how they got involved and became aware of it. It was also the aim of this study to evaluate their experiences, insights and attitude towards crowdfunding. Following the descriptive research design, rice farmers provided detailed information about crowdfunding, from their involvement to their experiences with it. Face-to-face interviews were conducted among n=13 rice farmers in the municipalities of Pila and Sta. Cruz in Laguna.

With an average age of 57 years old, all respondents have relied on farming as their main source of livelihood. Findings revealed that a typical farmer would need a capital ranging from Php 60,000 to Php 330,000 depending on the farm size and scope of operations. Having insufficient income to operate their farms, they have resorted to loaning from different funding sources such as rural banks, loan sharks, cooperatives and among friends and relatives, before they have tried crowdfunding.

All of the rice farmers become aware and involved to crowdfunding through the direct efforts of the organization in reaching them and the groups they belong to. They were viii motivated to take part in crowdfunding agreements mainly due to the low interest rates it offers as well as the minimal requirements and complexity of processes the organization has set.

The rice farmers also found their crowdfunding experience beneficial and satisfactory. They expressed that crowdfunding benefitted their farms well in terms of productivity and profitability. Even when asked about challenges they experience about crowdfunding, none was mentioned. They were all satisfied with their experiences, indicating that crowdfunding was highly preferred by all the farmers among other forms of financing. These experiences also led them to strongly recommend it to other farmers as well. This result has further strengthened our confidence that crowdfunding seems to be an effective alternative funding source that suits the needs of our rice farmers

Language

English

LC Subject

Agriculture, Farmers

Location

UPLB College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Call Number

LG 993 2020 M17 T85

Document Type

Thesis

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