Joint agribusiness ventures as alternative rural development model for the Philippines

This study determines the factors that influence the success of joint agribusiness ventures (JAV) as an approach to promote improvement in the physical quality of life of poor rural publics and enhance agricultural productivity in the Philippine countryside.Primary data was obtained from the survey of farmers engaged in JAV activities in randomly selected JAV sites nationwide. The selection of respondents was limited to the president or his/her equivalent in the cooperative organization of farmers in JAVs. Selection of JAV project-type was limited to engagements in fish culture, fruit trees, cash crops and forestry. Secondary data was gathered from textbooks, published articles, reports and studies of selected JAV practices/experiences in the Philippines and abroad. The questionnaire was designed for individual farmers/growers engaged in selected JAV\u27s to collect information to define the factors that influence the success of JAVs. The survey instrument has three parts. Part I contains the farmer\u27s personal information Part II, the farmer\u27s engagement in farming activities and Part III contains information on farming and related experiences before and during engagement with a JAV. This instrument was pre-tested in one of the JAV sites of Aqua-Gro Development Systems, Inc. involving 20 fish farmers/growers. The instrument was first translated into the local language and its contents and manner of supplying information were discussed with respondents. An initial testing of the survey using the questionnaire was conducted in Barangay Villarica, Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija on April 5, 1997 involving 50 fishfarmers in the Aqua-Gro JAV site. In order to describe the profile of respondents, frequency distributions, percentages, and mean analysis were used. To identify significant variables that contribute to change in the physical quality of life and agricultural productivity of respondents, statistical treatments as Factor analysis and Canonical Correlation analysis were applied.Study results show that the factors that influence the success of JAV\u27s are: 1) crops specification to be cultivated in JAV\u27s, 2) application of appropriate specified land use in JAV grow-out sites, 3) topographic conditions in JAV areas, 4) establishment of required support services in land reform areas in JAV sites, 5) maintenance and development of infrastructure systems, at least at minimum levels, in JAV sites, 6) availability of funds for the conduct of feasibility studies of proposed JAV projects, 7) weather and crop match characteristics in JAV sites, 8) extent of managerial and technical expertise of farmers\u27 organizations as efficient partners in JAV\u27s, and 9) empowerment expectations of farmers/growers in JAV\u27s.Results further show that the proposed alternative model of rural development can be expressed as: -0.85178YD1 + -0.55561YD2 = 0.00727XF1 + 0.05307XF2 + 0.23849XF3 + 0.04313XF44 + 0.01291XF5 + -0.03151XF6 + -0.00056XF7 + 0.06940XF8 + 0.02648XF9 + -0.05476XF10 + -0.01162XF11 + 0.10499XF12 + -0.05314XF13 + 0.01583XF14 + -0.04202XF15