Assessment of the social and economic gains and needs in adopting Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn feed rations in San Jacinto, Pangasinan, Philippines

Bt corn is introduced to partly alleviate food insecurity and poverty problems in developing countries. In the Philippines, the Bt corn feed producers are the provinces of Pangasinan, Negros Occidental, and Tarlac. The study was conducted in San Jacinto, Pangasinan [Philippines] to assess the social and economic gains and needs of the Bt corn feed adopters. Full, partial, and non-adopters of the Bt corn feed rations from three barangays [villages] were surveyed among 90 randomly selected Bt corn farmers and 27 of them participated in the Photovoice cum focus groups. Survey results showed that the full adopters compared to partial and non-adopters have farming experience but have higher educational attainment, bigger farm lands, more membership in farm organizations, and have trainings and seminars. They also produce livestock and poultry commercially. Thus full adopters have less desired gains compared with the partial and non-adopters since they have achieved enough income to buy farm machineries and equipment, to educate their children, and to buy household appliances. Social gains of the adopters are in the form of trainings and seminars, access to government health care insurance, and are able to enjoy recreational activities. Using Goodman-Kruskal tau, the characteristics of Bt corn farmers that were significantly related to adoption are gender, civil status, and commercial distribution of livestock and poultry. Eleven themes were identified from among the pictures taken by the Photovoice participants. The economic gains were the increase in income by using Bt corn feed rations, family members as labourers, and the education of children is derived from their income in the Bt corn feeds. On the other hand, the social gains of the adopters are the membership recreational activity. The economic needs were declining due to high supply of farm harvest, higher price of production inputs, and lack of machineries and equipment for corn and feed production. The social needs are the lack of government support to entice more professionals to venture into farming. It is concluded that to have full economic and social gains a farmer needs to fully adopt the Bt corn feed modelling as recommended by DA-PCARRD [Department of Argiculture-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development]. It is recommended that the government should play various roles in promoting Bt corn feed rations, as promoters through cooperatives and as regulators by documenting best practices of Bt corn farmers in the Philippines. The social and economic factors should be given equal importance in assessing biotechnology in the Philippines.