Transcript Gender Roles in Production and Marketing within the

Linking Upland Vegetable Farmers
to Lowland Philippine Markets:
Critical Factors and their Program
Implications
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Ma. Elena Chiong-Javier, Ph.D.
Social Development Research Center
 De La Salle University-Manila
The larger study is
a collaborative research
spearheaded by North Carolina
A&T University funded by the USAID
through Virginia Tech’s Sustainable
Agriculture and Natural Resources
Management (SANREM) III Program
Overall Collaborative
Research Goal

Alleviate poverty and food scarcity and
reduce environmental degradation through
economically-viable, resource-conserving
technologies and gender-friendly
socioeconomic policies that will reward
especially small women and men farmerstakeholders
The DLSU-SDRC Involvement
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Market value chain research to determine
marketable VAF products, market
channels, marketing practices, constraints
and opportunities
Gender studies focused on women’s
participation in VAF production and
marketing
Exploratory-descriptive design
Data gathering methods used: Document/literature review,
onsite observation, key informant interview, focus group
discussion, & survey
Study site: Songco, Lantapan, Bukidnon
An important concept:
AGROFORESTRY…
A land use system
combining the
production of trees
and food crops
(particularly highvalued vegetables)
on sloping land.
A. Top 5 VAF Products grown
Vegetables:
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Cabbage
Umbok (Chinese
cabbage)
Potato
Carrot
Tomato
Gender differences observed in
the ranking except for potato.
Trees:
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Eucalyptus
Gmelina
Falcata
Jackfruit
Lanzones
Gender differences noted
in the ranking except for
Lanzones.
B. Gender-differentiated Roles
in Production & Marketing
1. Men are the dominant labor force in almost
all niches of the agricultural (vegetable)
production cycle; women produce subsistence
crops and cut-flowers in home gardens.
Mainly Men
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Land preparation (97%)
Planting (77%)
Crop management/
watering/weeding (79%)
Fertilizer application (92%)
Pest control (95%)
Harvesting (84%)
Mainly Women
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On-farm meal
preparation
Home gardening
(Note traditional roles)
2. Timber production is also a
predominantly male task; female
participation is limited to tree care.
3. Men rather than women control the
following agricultural domains:
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Farm-level decision making, viz., when to
purchase inputs (66%) & timing of harvest
(58%)
Involvement in farmers’ organizations,
associations or cooperatives (69-100%)
Participation in agricultural training &
extension (54%).
4. However, women are actively
engaged in sourcing farm financing or
capital, procuring farm inputs, and
hiring/paying farm laborers.
5. Male spouses dominate in post-harvest
tasks of sorting, grading, and
transporting VAF products.
6. Vegetable marketing (especially small
scale) is dominated more by women
but timber marketing is done by men.
C. Market Information/
Communication
 Largely
informal and personal
channels
 Market players linked by mobile
phones (celfones)
 Hardly benefiting from institutional
sources
D. Product Quality
(vegetables)

Farmer’s adherence to simple
post-harvest rules of thumb
enhances quality.
Keep vegetables dry & in shaded areas.
 Retain much of the outer layers of
leafy vegetables.
 Wash/wipe vegetables clean.
 Arrange vegetables
properly when packing/
sacking.

 But quality is compromised by
type of packaging, loading/
trucking practices, bad farm-tomarket roads, and storage/bodega
conditions .
E. Multi-tiered Channels
Connecting VAF Producers
to Markets

There are more channels and types of
intermediaries in vegetable compared to
timber marketing.
Market Personages in
the Vegetable Supply Chain
 Farmer-Producers
(planters,
gardeners)
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Producers only
Producer-Biyahidor-Market stallholders (7 F)
Producer-Bodega owners (3 F & 2 M )
Producer-biyahidors (2 F & 2 M)
Producer-ambulant vendor/peddler
Producer-trucker (1 M)
Producer-trucker-bodega owner (1 M)
 Market Intermediaries
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Small haulers (carabao-drawn sleds)
Truckers (farm-to-market)
Biyahidors (buy-and-sell specialists):
plain biyahidors, biyahidor-market stallholders
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Bodega owners
Buyers’ “scouts”: classifiers & runners
(including “bwayas”)
Shippers & Big haulers (market-to-market)
Women Biyahidors
 Buyers
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Market wholesalers
Market retailers
Institutional buyers (Supermarkets, hotels,
restaurants)
End consumers (households buying from
retailers)
F. Marketing Constraints
(for vegetables)
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Lack of access to organized market
information, affecting production & marketing
decisions
Inability to maintain product quality & control
market pricing, increasing vulnerability to
unscrupulous practices
Lack of capital - high cost of farm-to-market
delivery (P5/sack for hauling; P90/sack for
trucking, P5/sack for bodega)
Poor transport facilities/infrastructure
Marketing Constraints for
Agroforestry Products
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Undeveloped market for timber and fruits
Difficulty in marketing timber due to legal
(permit) requirements
Poor timber quality affecting pricing
Non-profitability of selling timber due to high
cost of cutting and hauling and low prices
offered by buyers
Program Implications
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Any intervention to increase farm productivity,
whether for vegetables or tree crops, will
continue to be cornered by men. Even the
development of tree-based market
enterprises shall also turn out to be maledirected and -oriented.
However, vegetable-related market
enterprises shall most likely impact directly
and positively on women’s welfare.
Program implications…
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The supply chains are not demand-driven
but dominated and driven by middlemenbuyers; farmers’ knowledge about the
demand-driven side of the market such as
consumers’ preferences must be
enhanced.
Informal marketing networks or webs of
economic transactions can provide a
logical foundation for building marketing
collectives or clusters.
Program implications….
Marketing collectives should be
directly linked to institutional buyers.
 Adequate post-harvest training/
facilities for vegetables and market
infrastructure support are necessary.
 Explore alternative market ventures
for women (e.g., cut-flowers).
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Maraming Salamat….
Thank You!