OFF-FARM EMPLOYMENT AND FARM ADJUSTMENTS: IMPLICATIONS OF PART-TIME FARMING FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Statistical evidence shows that farm families in most of the developed countries are increasingly dependent on income from off-farm sources. In the United States, for example, over 50 percent of all farm operators worked off the farm in 1969, which is almost twice the percentage of forty years ago. The percentage of income from off-farm sources, as a result, increased from 29 percent in 1935 to 54 percent in 1976 (U.S. Department of Agriculture). The taking up of off-farm employment by one or more members of a farm family is probably one way to counteract the cost-price squeeze and to adjust to the rapidly changing economy and technology of a modern society. Little attention has been paid, however, to the nature and mechanism of adjustments through off-farm employment, especially at the micro level. Furthermore, very few economists have attempted to make intercountry comparisons of part-time farming from this viewpoint, due mainly to the lack of comparable data in most developed countries (Gasson). Taking the farm family as the unit of account, the main objective of this paper is to present and discuss the direction of on-farm and off-farm adjustments, labour allocation decisions, and the life cycle pattern of employment and income of the part-time farm family

Impacts of Ecological Risks to Food and Health Security in Laguna Lake Region, Philippines- -Focus on Flood Risks-

Although emerging as a new economic force in the world, Asian regions are facing various issues with their development being challenged by the negative impacts of rapid urbanization, rapid population growth and increasing demands on remaining natural resources and related services. Within the overall research focusing on the impacts of ecological risks to food and health security conducted in the Laguna Lake Region, Philippines, the present study emphasizes on flood risk assessment, measurement of resilience level of city and its community to flood disasters and finally on the impacts of flood risks to food and health security of communities. Economic activities, population increase, industrialization and rapid urbanization have been occurring in the region leading to another dimension of vulnerability of the natural and socioeconomic system affecting food and health security. In addition, increased human settlements, agricultural activities, and industrial development, ecological risks have caused significant impacts on agricultural, food and water supply on which public health heavily depends. Food and health risks, which result from both inadequate supply as well as poor quality of food, and water, are contributing significantly to the public health conditions. This problem is worsened by reported impacts of a changing climate felt directly by farmers, rural and urban dwellers, often characterized by increased flooding, landslides and drought. Therefore, already threatened by the above risks, the region is often experiencing flood disasters, following typhoons, or heavy monsoon rains leading to heavy casualties and grave public health issues sue to the spread of diseases and submersion and also aggravated by resulting food security problems. Flood risks, also shaped by various factors such as social, physical and environmental vulnerability, need therefore to be determined in order to have a full knowledge of what are or might be happening and how it affects resilience to flooding and impacts food and health security of Laguna Lake community. Data collection is based on literature review, questionnaire survey, interviews and focus group discussions. Data analysis is conducted by using statistical tools and GIS-based modeling and mapping

Conditions to Maintain Healthy Eco-Food System: the Case of Laguna Lake Watershed, Philippines

There is a growing concern that long-standing, expanding environmental changes in resource degradation accompanied by rapid economic growth are affecting the health and livelihoods of people in many parts of Asian countries. These vulnerable communities live in degraded ecosystems that are harmful to their health. With few resources to face these problems, they face environmental pollution, and new and old infectious diseases. The present paper is an outcome of an ongoing empirical research, composed of medical, environmental and social scientists, to clarify the link between environment degradation, leading to a disruption of ecosystem services, and people’s health and livelihoods. More specifically, it is our aim to identify and analyze the past and current land use changes, water and sediment related risks to the health of communities in the Laguna Lake region in the Philippines and the linkage with their livelihoods. It is expected to clarify more practical, appropriate policy recommendations to improve current land use and development planning as well as public health systems. For data collection, household surveys, focused group discussions, key informant interviews are conducted in addition to secondary data reviews. Laboratory analyses are conducted with soil, water, biomaterial and fish samples to identify ecological risks at upper, middle and lower watersheds. Data analysis is conducted by using statistical and geographical information system tools. The challenge of the ecosystem approach to Eco-Food system is how to meet human needs without modifying or jeopardizing the ecosystem in the long term, and ideally, even improving it

Building Disaster Resilience to Address Household Food Security: The Case of Sta. Rosa-Silang Subwatershed

The Laguna Lake Region is one of the places in the Philippines that are most vulnerable to natural disasters because of their location and ecological condition. Among the natural calamities that regularly hit the country, one of the most frequent and disastrous is flooding. The most affected are the poor who are faced with the double risk of being food insecure and living in conditions that are very vulnerable to natural hazards. The most negative and long-term effect of flooding is reduction in food security because flooding erodes the asset base of households that in turn results in the adoption of negative adaptation strategies. The impact of flooding on household food security however depends on disaster resilience - the capacity of households to absorb the adverse consequences. But what constitutes resiliency? What factors affect resiliency? A case study was made in the Sta. Rosa-Silang Subwatershed with the intention of developing a resiliency index that would indicate the capacity of households to absorb the negative consequences of flood disasters. Results show that resilience, which is multidimensional, is determined by demographic and socioeconomic conditions, social capital, amount of damages or losses, social safety nets, and quality of local governance. Specifically, the results show that household disaster resiliency is negatively related to the level of exposure to natural hazards and positively related to the economic capability of households and the community standard of living. In addition, the study demonstrates that enhancing household resiliency could be an important component of any strategy to address food insecurity due to natural hazards. Thus, in disaster-prone areas, measures to enhance household disaster resilience should be an integral part of food security strategies and policies. The role of the resilience index becomes crucial to the evaluation of the conditions of a target population