Factor conditions and efficiency of smallholder banana production [in Quirino, Oriental Mindoro and Davao, Philippines]

Sustaining the Philippine banana status as the fifth highest producing and exporting country is a big challenge. This calls for continued effort to enhance production efficiency particularly among smallholder farmers to be at par with commercial producers. There is a need to fully harness the production potential of available resources such as land, capital and labor. Quicoy (UPLB) [University of the Philippines Los Baños, College, Laguna, Philippines] analyzed the nature, quality, quantity and other characteristics of the various factor condition recommended necessary policy interventions to enhance the efficiency of smallholder banana production. The study was part of the STAP [Science and Technology Anchor Program] for banana under the DOST-PCARRD [Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines] funding support. This involved 275 farmers planting saba, latundan and lakatan in Quirino and Oriental Mindoro. Sample farmers from Davao provinces were interviewed for comparative analysis. Area devoted to saba, lakatan and latundan production averaged 1.52 ha, 0.99 ha and 0.67 ha, respectively. Yield level varied among farms. Among saba farms, annual yield averaged 9.80 t/ha. Majority were low yielder with only 4.95 t/ha annually. Two high production farms produced 18.32 t/ha per year. Saba farms in Quirino and Davao had higher yields (11.30 t/ha and 12.85 t/ha, respectively) than those in Oriental Mindoro (5.74 t/ha). Among lakatan farms, annual yield averaged only 9.78 t/ha. Like the saba farms, majority of lakatan farms were low yielder with only 4.27 t/ha per year. Few high yielder farms produced more than 23 t/ha annually. Lakatan farms in Quirino and Davao had higher average yield (12.99 t/ha and 8.11 t/ha, respectively) than those in Oriental Mindoro (3.18 t/ha). Latundan farms yielded an average of 7.8 t/ha, 2.7 t/ha among low yielder farms and 22.3 t/ha among high yielder from Quirino farms had higher average yield (13.86 t/ha) compared with those in Davao (6.6 t/ha). There were no latundan farms in Oriental Mindoro. Minimal use of inputs and inadequate management partly explained the low yield levels in the study areas. Banana farms were marginally managed and the farmers used minimal inputs. Only a few applied fertilizers at very negligible amount (10-50 kg/hr). Oftentimes fertilization was done only when there were quantities left after use in the other crops. Pesticides were used only by Davao farmers at 0.5 L/ha. Other cultural practices such as clearing and weeding, stem and mat sanitation, desuckering and bagging were generally practiced by Davao farmers but seldom done by Quirino and Oriental Mindoro farmers. Davao farmers generated higher profit in lakatan production. The capital used efficiency was rather low, mostly less than Php 1.00/unit of capital used. Only the high yielder lakatan farmers in Davao were relatively more efficient with average gross revenue of Php 2.4/unit of capital used in production. In saba production, the values were Php 0.16 in Oriental Mindoro, Php 0.34 in Quirino and Php 0.25 in Davao. The labor efficiency on the gross revenue per mean-day of labor used ranged considerably from less than a hundred pesos to more than a thousand pesos. Lakatan farms in Davao were more labor efficient than those in Quirino and Oriental Mindoro. On the other hand, the latter were more efficient than the former in saba production. Other factors that affected banana yields and production efficiency were the incidence of pests and diseases, occurrence of natural calamities, poor soil conditions, lack of capital and high costs of inputs. The farmers also lamented the existing marketing system particularly in Quirino and Oriental Mindoro. Selling of banana on per five-piece basis (bananas in excess of the factor of five per finger are not counted) with 10% volume discount seriously affected the gross income of the farmers.