Upending Malthus: the household role in Philippine food gains and fertility losses, 1970-1980
Hackenberg, R.A.
Publication, International Development Research Centre, Canada (260e): 7-20
1988
Document Number: 355802
The paper reports data from the Philippines representing population growth and food production at two points in time, 1970 and 1980. The intervening decade, here as elsewhere, proved to be a crucial one for reversing trends in both directions. The study may be interpreted as a trend analysis at the microlevel of the mechanisms that operated to upend Malthus in two representative rural municipalities of the Mindanao province of Davao del Sur. The discussion identifies two sources for the dramatic changes taking place. First, resident households responded to the economic forces at work in a rapidly evolving frontier environment. Second, newly established government programmes provided massive political intervention. It is concluded that the effectiveness of any attempt at local programme design will depend on local sources of funding and local capacity for decision making. Should this become possible each region's machinery for farm production and population control will begin to diverge from the others. If farmers and community groups can become partners in research, development, and decision making, diversification may prove to be the solution for both the government and the farm village under Green Revolution conditions.