“I Wanted to Enhance Agriculture and all I have was RCEF” – An Exploratory-Qualitative Examination of RCEF Effectiveness in Malolos, Bulacan

Abstract

As reflected in the Philippine Development Plan, the Philippines is committed to revitalizing and improving its agricultural sector. This commitment is shown through the enactment of laws and programs such as the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF). To uphold the quality of these programs and to ensure the relevance of their implementation, it has become necessary to examine these programs’ target constituents, critically analyze the effects of these programs on their target constituents, and take note of the unsolved problems the target constituents are facing. This study evaluates the effectiveness of RCEF in improving agricultural productivity. Using an exploratory-qualitative approach, snowball sampling, and thematic analysis, this study examines the implementation of RCEF, the strengths and weaknesses of farmers and local governments in taking advantage of the benefits offered by the program, and the problems farmers face that are outside the scope of RCEF. This study notes that from farmers’ perspective, the mechanization component of RCEF offers little contribution to productivity, that seedling distributions and training as an extension service have more direct contributions to productivity, and that benefits to farming come mostly in the form of cost reduction. Local governments are cognizant of farmers’ plights. However, due to limited implementing capacity in terms of land use management and information sharing, they cannot offer their full support to farmers. Backed by these insights, this study recommends that local and national governments problematize agriculture not only in terms of productivity but also in terms of geography and other holistic indicators.