Farm Profile of Sugarcane Farmers in the Visayas, Philippines and their Productivity Level

Abstract

The present status of sugarcane farming in the Visayan area of the Philippines has very low productivity especially in areas with 10.0 hectares and below. Doloriel (2014) confirmed in his study that sugarcane farming is productive and profitable only for medium and large-sized farms with an area of 10.01 hectares and above. This confirmed that small sugarcane farming is not profitable which is 79% of 424,199 hectares, the total area planted sugarcane for the whole Philippines.Using this descriptive method, we were able to determine the productivity of sugarcane farmers and farm profile in the Visayas, Philippines. The 400 sugarcane farmers have randomly selected the 10 mill districts in the Visayas area. The Extension Program Guidelines used by the agency measured productivity, sugarcane farmers, and farm profiles.The results indicate that sugarcane farms in the Visayas area are highly productive, and there is a significant difference between the productivity of sugarcane farms when grouped by location. The level of productivity of sugarcane farming in the Visayas, measured by factors such as the size of farms, type of soils, land topography, average rainfall, distance to the sugar mill, farming innovations, worker’s availability, and expenses per hectare, was low.There is a significant difference in the productivity of sugarcane farming at the different mill districts in the Visayas area based on factors such as farm size, topography, distance to the mill, farming innovations, worker’s availability, and expenses per hectare except for the type of soil and average rainfall.