ABSTRACT

This research will introduce to us the important activities and

undertakings of the life of Rice farmers in Brgy. Pagsabangan, Tagum City.
How the system should the farmers go on their rice crops, from land
preparation of their farmsoil, purchases of their farm inputs used for planting,
the care-maintenance and up to the harvesting period of their produced
product. The main issue and concern of the farmers is the high prices of farm
inputs such as seeds, pesticides and fertilizers. Rice production is very
laborious and intensive, nowadays the rate of laborer and maintenance is
very expensive.
The farmers cannot anticipate the outcome of how much the expected
harvest they should get. The problems of flood and insect infestation during
vegetative stage of the palay will hampers the target harvest. The climate
change they anticipate during the life of palay crops and the fluctuation of
prices during marketing of their harvest will also add the crusade and
difficulty how palay rice being produced.

Rice is the staple food of the Filipino people. Over 90 percent of the
population of Tagum City will prefer and consumed rice With growing
prosperity and urbanization, per capita rice consumption has started to
increase due to the demand and popular of this cereal grain products.

According to Dictionary, rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza

sativa (Asian rice) or Oryza glaberrima (African rice). As a cereal grain, it is
the most widely consumed staple food for a large part of the world's human
population, especially in Asia. The starchy seeds or grain of an annual
marsh grass, cultivated in warm climates and used for food. It is the
agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production,
after sugarcane and maize, according to 2012 FAOSTAT data.

The task of increasing the current level of production and increasing

the area of land to till will face additional difficulties of the Barangay as
many of the farm area was converted to Banana Plantation and habitat for
housing and commercial establishment. Proper intervention of the local
government is much higher needed to protect the conversion of the arable
land into commercial and subdivision purposes. Their must be proper and
strict compliance in the implementation of the law in the classification of
area between agricultural and commercial land use. Such law should be
implemented properly to protect the arable rice area to stand as agricultural
purposes only and cannot be converted to other land use.