Household Labor and Child Care Needs among Philippine Highland Farmers

Abstract

This paper explores implications of Chayanovian analysis, the New Home Economics, and anthropological household studies for understanding relationships among reproductive and productive activities in farming households. Data on labor recall, household membership, and farming practice are analyzed from households in a community in Benguet Province, Philippines. These households include some which practice traditional rice and root farming and others which plant commercial vegetable crops as well. Variation among these households demonstrates a correspondence of three-generation extended families with traditional farming practices and of active recruitment of adult labor with households practicing commercial farming. These households appear to vary in the degrees to which they commit to productive or reproductive activity, and most may actively coordinate these two endeavors through management of household membership and choices of productive strategies. I suggest that attention to the relationships among management of both childcare needs and farm production is necessary in order to develop appropriate agricultural technologies, policies, and programs for Third World countries.