Factors affecting yield performance of banana farms in Oriental Mindoro, Philippines
2009
Bathan, B.M. | Lantican, F.A., Philippines Univ. Los Baños, College, Laguna (Philippines). Coll. of Economics and Management
This paper presents the factors affecting yield performance of banana farms located in Oriental Mindoro, identifies the problems/constraints encountered by banana growers, and provide policy directions that would enhance the productivity of banana in the province. Banana production in Oriental Mindoro posted a positive growth of 3.50% per annum mainly due to expansion in area planted, which also grew at 4.10% per year from 1990 to 2008. Yields per hectare and per hill showed annual negative growth rates of 0.01% and 0.44%, respectively, in the same period. In 2007, banana production reached 163.729 mt covering 18,371 hectares and 7.43 million hills. Yields were registered at 8.91 mt/ha and 0.22 mt/hill. Based on survey data of 80 banana growers from the municipalities of Bansud, Socorro, Pinamalayan and Bacu in Oriental Mindoro in 2007, multiple regression analysis was done. The Cobb-Douglas production function was estimated using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method. Explanatory variables included in the model on a per hectare basis were nitrogen fertilizer, labor, planting material cost,number of stalks, tenurial status, types of banana cultivars grown, presence of intercrops, topography, soil type, distance between hills, education, farming experience, age of farmer, gender, household size and distance of farm to residence. Increased fertilizer and labor usage, adoption of diversified banana farming, establishment of ideal farm characteristics (i.e., clay loam or sandy clay loam soil, distance between hills of greater than or equal to 20 sq m and longer distance from farm to residence), and tenurial status in favor of owner operators significantly and positively affected banana yield in Oriental Mindoro. The sum of the production elasticities (0.76) was significantly different from one as revealed by the t-test results. The function coefficient of the OLS model implied increasing returns to scale where a 1% increase in all production inputs would raise banana yield by 0.76%. Problems and constraints cited by the banana grower-respondents in Oriental Mindoro included: limited supply of high-yielding and disease-free banana planting materials, high incidence of pest and diseases, and inadequate knowledge on proper production practices/technologies in banana farms. Hence, the following policy directions are recommended: provision of technical and budgetary support to the propagation and distribution of banana varieties which are better yielding and highly resistant to virus and other systemic diseases, adoption of site specific IPM and dissemination of information on control of banana pests and diseases, conduct of training on good agricultural practices (GAP), and formation of banana cluster to effectively forge strong linkages between banana growers and suppliers of quality planting materials and production technologies.
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