Ratio of agri sector to labor force declining

MANILA, Philippines - The share of the agriculture sector to the country’s labor force has been declining at an average  rate of 2.3 percent in the past five years, according to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics  (BAS).

Data recently released by BAS showed that between 2008 and 2012, employment in the farm sector grew  by a measly 0.1 percent annually.

In 2012, about 12.09 million workers were employed in the agriculture sector, accounting for 32.2  percent of the country’s 40-million strong labor  force.

Agricultural employment remained highest in Western Visayas with 1.14 million workers but has  been decreasing by 1.3 percent each year.

In NCR, however, employment in agriculture has been rising by 2.9 percent annually although only  31,000 persons are engaged in farm work in the region as of last year.

Positive growth rates in farm employment have been recorded in Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Mimaropa, Eastern Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Soccsksargen, and ARMM.

In terms of the share of agriculture in employment within a region, ARMM is still the most reliant on the farm sector for work, with 70. 1 percent of available labor absorbed by agriculture.

In Cagayan Valley, Mimaropa and Soccsksargen, as much as 50 to 58 percent of workers are engaged in farm work.

In NCR, 0.7 percent of its workers are engaged in agriculture.

With the exception of NCR, the proportion of agriculture employment to the total regional employment has been falling by 0.2 to 4.6 percent annually in the last five years.

Self-employed workers in the sector comprised 46 percent of the total agricultural workforce equivalent to 5.65 million persons.

Salaried workers in the sector comprised around 29.5 of the sectoral labor force, equivalent to about 3.62 million workers.

The unpaid family workers made up about 24.5 percent of the of the total agricultural workforce.

In 2012, salaried farm workers received an average of P166.74 per day, an average increase 4.7 percent annually. Paid fishermen are paid higher at P191.68 a day.

There are around 1.41 million minors aged five to 17 years old working in agriculture.

BAS noted that a child is considered economically active if he works for at least one hour daily.

Government and industry officials have repeatedly pointed out that the country’s agriculture labor force is aging with the average age of farmers currently placed at 50 years.

Many farmers do not encourage their children to engage in farm work, advising them instead to seek  lucrative careers in other industries.

The government recently passed the Agriculture and Fisheries Mechanization Law which would lay  down the foundation for the development of an agriculture machinery industry and substitute  imports.

Pending the implementation of the law, the government is implementing a cost sharing scheme with farmers  cooperatives wherein the government shoulders 85 percent of the farm equipment while qualified  cooperatives shell out the remaining 15 percent.

The thinning of the agricultural labor force is not really a bad thing if coupled with improved mechanization, says manufacturers.

“There now more than 11 million workers in the agriculture sector and the manufacturing sector  only has a worker base of three million. Mechanization can free up farm laborers to engage in value-adding work,” said Roberto Batungbacal, a director of the Federation of Philippine Industries.

He said the gradual shift of some farm workers to industry would provide a boost to the economy because manufacturing has higher productivity than rural work and services.

Rex Bingabing, the director of the Philippine center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (Philmech) earlier said that contrary to concerns that increased mechanization would result to job loss in the agriculture sector, farm hands who shift to industry can be engaged in machine manufacturing it not factory work in the value-adding of agricultural products.