Awareness, Knowledge and Perception for Pest Control Service among Medium to Large Scale Rice Producers in Laguna

Date

5-2019

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness Management

College

College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Faustino Q. Arrienda II

Committee Member

Rachelle A. Mariano, Melodee Marciana E. De Castro, Agnes T. Banzon, Normito R. Zapata, Jr.

Abstract

Rice is what nearly all Filipinos eat and the source of livelihood of many Filipino farmers since Philippines is the world’s eighth-largest rice producer. Rice pests, any undesirable organism that causes loss in production, was observed ever since agriculture started. Hence pest control was also practiced through conventional methods. It is the process of eradicating different pests and protecting food crops. This refers to killing the pest using pesticides or the chemical control. But a few years later, this band-aid solution starts to affects the environment and human health negatively. These led to developing the concept of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). IPM is an ecological approach for pest management which engage all available skills, techniques, and practices namely- cultural, mechanical, biological, chemical control methods and genetic resistance.

The use of pesticide in the Philippines for rice, cuts the production instead of improving it because associated health costs are accounted as production cost (Rola & Pingali, 1993). As stated by Varca (2002), the problem in the pesticide industry which is termed by environmentalists as economic poisons, arises in the application of pesticide because only 15% hits the target and the rest is distributed in the air and soil. Some health risks to operators include cancer, negative reproductive outcomes, delayed neuropathy, neurobehavioral effects, acute poisoning, and in worst case scenario- death. Also, consumers can be affected when small residues of chemicals remain in the crops. Moreover, there are also increasing environmental risks because some beneficial insects become the accidental targets of the chemical or in other cases, some chemicals are washed down by the rain which can go to lakes and rivers.

This study tested the market acceptability of a pest control service company and tap potential markets in the province of Laguna. A list of registered rice producers from the Provincial Government of Laguna was used, obtaining 235 respondents of both medium scale rice producers (2-5 hectares) and large-scale rice producers (5 hectares and more). The sampling procedure used was the stratified random sampling and then random samples were selected per strata or municipality yielding to 69 respondents- ten (10) farmers are interviewed from the municipality of Majayjay, eight (8) from Bay, eleven (11) from Lumban, one (1) from Paete, and thirty-nine (39) from Cabuyao. The demographic profile of the respondents was assessed according to age distribution, educational attainment, number of years in farming, farm size, and source of knowledge in pesticide. It was matched with the current pest control practices. Also, the needs and preferences of the target market were also identified such as the brand of pesticides they prefer, the common demographic characteristics of the potential adopters, respondents’ reason for purchasing a pesticide which was narrowed down to four criteria.

For the current pest control practices, the usage and peso spent on pesticide varies from farmer to farmer because of their different farm size and occurrence of pests. But in general, there are few farmers in Laguna who use other control methods besides chemical control. 57% also said that other control methods are not effective because even if they practice it, pests still occur and only pesticides can instantly stop the occurrence of pests. Almost all the respondents answered that pesticides are necessary in rice production because of its effectiveness and speed. There are four factors considered when operators buy pesticides namely- performance/effectiveness, easy to use and prescribed, safe, and affordable and accessible. From the survey and interview, the most important factor is affordable and accessible, followed by performance or effectiveness, then safe, and lastly easy to use and prescribed. In terms of the equipment used by the respondents, they only used a knapsack sprayer while some of them rent or borrow other equipment such as mechanized boom sprayer, spike tooth harrow, and etc. to their corresponding cooperatives or organization. For the protective equipment or clothing, none of the respondents worn full body protection. As a matter of fact, 27 out of 69 respondents only wore t-shirt and shorts.

For the level of awareness of pest control, there are only 6 respondents (out of 69) who knew any pest control service company. The respondents were asked to further explain the process and the researcher observed that it was confused with seed and chemical companies who market their pesticides for free so that farmers will try out their new product in their rice field. For the cost of service per session, majority of the respondents was not sure how to quote the price for the service company since most farmers were not familiar to the proposed service company. Most of them answered their willingness to pay relative to their current cost for pesticide application which includes the cost of pesticides and how frequent they apply and labor cost (200 to 500 pesos).

Some of the opportunities concluded by the researcher (1) there is a niche of rice producers that are most likely to avail a pest control service company. These rice farm owners are described as too old to be operators of their agricultural land so they hire laborers to work on their field, not only for subsistence farming but also cash crops. These rice farm owners ensure the quality of their harvest; Next is (2) there are no current direct competitors since there are no established pest control service company that works on agricultural land. Being first in the pesticide industry gains an edge or advantage for the service company and has greater potential of being a market leader. And lastly (3) the emerging need to increase efficiency in rice production since arable land and man-hour is decreasing and population grows exponentially. Recently, technology in agriculture is rapidly innovating and imagine if this pest control service company acquires new technologies.

In order to alleviate the notion of the pesticide industry as economic poisons when it applies pesticide, a pest control service company is introduced by the researcher. The pest control service company has the sufficient knowledge in pesticide application specifically when to apply, knows to identify target pests, practice desired behavior in storing, handling and disposing hazardous pesticides and most importantly to target the harmful pest only and reduce the distribution of pesticide in the environment. Also, it puts a huge effort in investing on efficient equipment and machines like knapsack sprayer with different nozzles, availability of protective clothing or device, and advance technology in order to achieve economies of scale. A centralized agency of agricultural technicians and experts that offers professional assistance and complements the efforts in integrated pest management will be the main goal of the service company. Further, to gain an edge, be first, or be better. This pest control service company offers rice farm owners or beneficiaries something that the current competition does not offer and gives the business the competitive advantage needed to stand out in the market. Also, a better option for their customers since it addresses the current issues and problems in the pesticide industry. This first-mover company will secure the employment of talented farmers or technicians whom can identify different rice pests, uses correct and effective pesticides, knows how and when to correctly apply pesticides and the necessary precautions, wears a protective device in order to reduce the health risks to both operators and environment, and has state-of- the-art technology and equipment needed in pesticide application. This is an alternative to the laborer that rice farm owners outsource which are paid at least 200 and at most 500 pesos per day or session, based from the interview.

On the other hand, some of the issues observed by the researcher is the (1) unavailability of protective device or clothing of operators, (2) lack od knowledge with pesticide usage and its target pests, (3) availability of other equipment (Knapsack sprayer only), (4) accessibility of pesticides to farmers, (5) decreasing trend for chemical control or pesticide usage. An analysis of the different pest control methods was also discussed to allow users to evaluate control methods in terms of profitability, cost of investment, negative environmental impacts and health hazard to operators.

Language

English

LC Subject

Rice trade, Pests--Control--Environmental aspects

Location

UPLB College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Call Number

LG 993 2019 M17 B45

Notes

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Document Type

Thesis

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