Agricultural Intensification and Labor Productivity in a Philippine Vegetable Gardening Community: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

This paper concerns the evolution of commercial vegetable gardening as a source of household livelihood in a Philippine farming community during 1971-1988. This period was locally marked by dramatic population growth and agricultural intensification, the latter evidenced by a growing emphasis on gardening at the expense of more land-extensive agricultural systems, and by a two-to threefold increase in labor invested per unit of land in gardening itself. Despite such intensification, the returns to gardening labor were, like the returns to gardening land, considerably greater in 1988 than in 1971. Reasons for greater labor productivity in 1988 included increased market opportunity, improved efficiency in production and marketing, and technological change. These and other changes that have made gardening a more attractive production choice today are in turn related to the changing economic and social characteristics of community residents, and to the role of the state in influencing the local development pr...