This paper hypothesizes that non-farm opportunities will reduce family labor in the farm operations. Given output prices to be constant, farm decision makers will also restrict farm labor hiring and hence, would opt for less labor-intensive activities. In the upland setting, this may result in more environment friendly techniques and a probable shift to perennial crops or to less intensive (fallow) farming systems.
The case of the upland community of Lantapan, Bukidnon is used to describe farmer behavior in terms of soil conservation technologies in the presence of emerging rural non-farm labor markets. Rural here includes surrounding towns in the province such as Malaybalay and Valencia which are densely populated. It also discusses economic development and employment trends in the Philippines for the past twenty-eight years, and the labor markets in Bukidnon and in Lantapan. It gives an econometric analysis of the link between non-farm employment and soil conservation practices. A policy scenario for sustainable soil resource management concludes the paper.
