Challenging dominant

orthodoxies on Filipino

youth’s perceptions on

rice farming

REALLY, THEY

HATE FARMING?:

Jaime A Manalo IV &

Elske van de FliertPaper presented during the Crop Science Societies of the Philippines Conference, 16-20 April 2012

In the next 15 minutes …

• Introduction (rural youth outmigration; the need to rethink)

• Materials and methods

• Results and discussion

• Proposal for youth engagement

• Conclusions

Perceptions that cast so much negative light on youth’s indirect or direct participation in rice farming should be reviewed, if not abandoned.

MAIN ARGUMENT

MAIN ARGUMENT

While it is true that it is difficult to directly engage the youth in rice farming, indirect engagement is entirely possible and should be encouraged.

RURAL YOUTH OUTMIGRATION

• Young individuals comprise 35% of all the Overseas Filipino Workers (DOLE 2010)

GOOGLE IMAGES

• As young individuals, 15-24 years old, get some education they take on jobs in key cities even if farming were to be more profitable (Paris et al 2010)• Masculinisation of rural areas and feminisation of urban areas (Gultiano and Urich 2005)

RURAL YOUTH OUTMIGRATION

GOOGLE IMAGES

ALERT!• Leaving rural areas= no

interest in farming?

• Interest in farming= direct involvement in farmwork?

THE NEED TO RETHINK

Is it really a case that

they don’t want to farm,

or they just want to do

farming differently?

THE NEED TO RETHINK

Leavers

Returners

GOOGLE IMAGES

GOOGLE IMAGES

Will-stay-no-matter-whatGOOGLE IMAGES

Youth bulge

Educated

21 M

Sophisticated

ICTs

Social networking capital of the worldSMS Capital of

the world

Innovative ICT applications

What will you do with that?

2 PHENOMENA

RESEARCH SITES & PARTICIPANTS

• Aurora and Albay

• Sought help from Children

International (Albay) and

OpAPA (Aurora)

• 68 research participants

7-10 research

participants per barangay

4 barangays per

province (2 lowland; 2

upland)

APPROACH• Qualitative approach (Interpretivism)

• Lived experiences of the research participants

• “interpretive approaches see people and their interpretations, perceptions, meanings and understandings as the primary data sources” (Mason 2009, p.56)

• Methods used depend on the questions asked

METHODS

METHODS: Time Transect

METHODS: Mobility mapping

METHODS: Photovoice

METHODS:

ANALYSIS

Transcription of recorded

interviews/group discussion

Grouping transcribed data into different

categoriesRegrouping/Reducing

CONFIDENTIALITY AND INFORMED CONSENT

• Participants were asked to sign informed consent letters prior to their participation

• They were also allowed to withdraw their participation at any point

• They were given IDs for the interview transcription

• Careful not to mention their names in the manuscript

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

RETHINKING YOUTH’S PERCEPTIONS

• Some time on the farm

• Heart for the farming family

• Vision for the farm

SOME TIME ON THE FARM

• Reasons for minimal involvement

– studies

– familial restrictions

– drudgery of doing farmwork

SOME TIME ON THE FARM

• Drudgery of doing farmwork

– “Those who are dark will even be darker [because of farming]..." (Mobility map7)

– "It’s so hot... Mama, I can’t do this anymore!" (II57)

– “It makes my fingernails dirty... so dark! [referring to picking up of golden apple snails] (II42)

SOME TIME ON THE FARM

HEART FOR THE FARMING FAMILY

Value education

Livelihood

HEART FOR THE FARMING FAMILY

Beautiful house (with swimming pool)

HEART FOR THE FARMING FAMILY

Love that never dies (raison d’etre)

“These are the

elements that

shape me:

myself, my family

and God”(Photovoice5)

HEART FOR THE FARMING FAMILY

VISION FOR THE FARM

“Once a farmer, always a farmer!”

Buy a coconut farm someday

VISION FOR THE FARM

“I want to invest in farming so I can employ our poor

relatives.”

VISION FOR THE FARM

RETHINKING YOUTH’S PERCEPTIONS

• Regard the youth as future rice farming investors, instead of ignoring their potential involvement solely because of their expressed intent to leave the country

• Financing the input-intensive rice farming operations

• Programs to engage the youth will enable them to do that in the future

• Direct involvement at this point can be a fantasy; Indirect involvement is the way to go

Sagot ko ang

Magulang Ko! :mobilising the youth to serve as infomediaries for their parents

ICT applications

Pinoy Rice Knowledge bankPhilRice Text Centre Info hubs (PhilRice, IRRI, DA) Nutrient

Manager

E-rice calendar

AccessICT anxietyComputer and

functional

illiteracies

PovertyInadequate time

Infomediaries

WHY INFOMEDIARIES

BASIS FOR THE INFOMEDIARY PROPOSAL

Frequent visits to computer shops

Mobile phone addiction

"[I text] daily... often,up to 7 hours...’tilmidnight or evenuntil dawn ... until3am"

BASIS FOR THE INFOMEDIARY PROPOSAL

Sends more than 200text messagesdaily!!!

=

ALMOST

INFOMEDIARY CONTINUUM

Activities

CONCLUSION• There are good reasons to believe that

prevailing notions that cast so much negative light on youth’s potential involvement in rice farming should be reviewed, if not abandoned.

• The fear that the youth might abandon farming one day might easily happen if we will not involve them.

• The proposal to mobilise the youth as infomediaries for their parents, which was drawn from the findings of this study, can, if proven effective, serve as a new strategy in extension.

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION

Is it really a case that

they don’t want to

farm, or they just want

to do farming

differently?

My research participants and friends