Personal Well-Being of Dairy Buffalo Entrepreneurs in Nueva Ecija, Philippines

Abstract

Dairy buffalo entrepreneurship is an important livelihood strategy with great potential of providing sustainable livelihood to people particularly family entrepreneurs. Nueva Ecija, being the main area of intervention of the Philippine Carabao Center, has been well-supported for its buffalo-based dairy enterprises. Empirical studies assessing the well-being of families engaged in dairying in the province, however, were not much explored; hence this study.Data were gathered through face-to-face interview with 170 dairy buffalo entrepreneurs using a survey questionnaire. Personal well-being index (PWI) was measured in terms of the core set of items forming the PWI comprising seven questions on satisfaction with specific life domains. The satisfaction scores from all domains are simply summed up to produce a mean satisfaction value, known as the PWI score, to represent subjective well-being (SWB). The following guidelines for the interpretation of the PWI scores were used: 70+ points = ‘Normal’: A person is likely to be experiencing a normal level of well-being. 51-69 points = ‘Challenged’: Personal well- being is likely to be challenged/compromised. The PWI of the dairy buffalo entrepreneurs was found to be within the normative range of population, which means that they are generally experiencing a normal level of well-being. Findings further showed that while the entrepreneurs were simultaneously engaged in dairying and other sources of household income, such as non-dairy farm, off-farm and non-farm, they are satisfied with farm work and even managed to enjoy various leisure activities.