CROPSCI 101

Principles in Crop Production

Module 1
Nature and Importance of Agriculture

Overview and Objectives:

This module gives a brief background on current state about Philippine

Agriculture. It also identifies problems, prospects and crops origin and
distribution.

Knowing the status of Philippine Agriculture will help to find solution in some
problem and find opportunities to some prospect in agriculture in the future.
Furthermore, identifying crops origin and distribution will help to understand its
history and management practices

At the end of this module, the learners will be able to:

 State the data and facts about Philippine Agriculture;
 Relate the development of Philippine agriculture with world agriculture
 Identify the problems and prospects of Philippine agriculture
 Name agricultural crops their origin and geographical distribution.

I. Definition of Agriculture

 The word “Agriculture” come from two Latin word ager and tura that means field and
cultivation respectively.

 Definition by books
 Agriculture is the systematic raising of useful plants and livestock under the
management of man (Rimando, T.J.. 2004. Crop Science 1: Fundamentals of Crop
Science. U.P. Los Baños: University Publications Office. p. 1)
 Agriculture is the growing of both plants and animals for human needs (Abellanosa,
A.L. and H.M. Pava. 1987. Introduction to Crop Science. Central Mindanao
University, Musuan, Bukidnon: Publications Office. p. 238).
 Agriculture is the deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth's surface through the
cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain.
(Rubenstein, J.M. 2003. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human
Geography. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. p. 496).
  Legal definition by Philippine Laws
 Agriculture includes farming in all branches and, among other things, includes the
cultivation and tillage of soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing and
harvesting of any agricultural and horticultural commodities, the raising of livestock
or poultry, and any practices performed by a farmer on a farm as an incident to or
in conjunction with such farming operations, but does not include the
manufacturing or processing of sugar, coconuts, abaca, tobacco, pineapple or
other farm products. (Art. 97 (d), Chapter I, Title II, Labor Code of the Philippines)
 Agriculture, Agricultural Enterprise or Agricultural Activity means of such farm
products, and other farm activities cultivation of the soil, planting of crops, growing
of fruit trees, including the harvesting and practices performed by a farmer in
conjunction with such farming operations done by persons whether natural or
juridical. (Sec. 3b, Chapter I, Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 (R.A.
No. 6657 as amended by R. A. 7881), Philippines. Retrieved September 2, 2010
from http://www.chanrobles.com/legal4agrarianlaw. htm.
 Agriculture has two main divisions: Crop Production and Livestock/Animal Production
 Simplified definitions:
 Agriculture is the science and practice of producing plants, other crops, and
animals for food, other human needs, or economic gain.
 Agriculture is the art and science of growing plants and other crops and raising
animals for food, other human needs, or economic gain.

II. Data and Facts about Philippine Agriculture

 Philippines Land Area:
 Philippines has a total land area of 30 M hectares
 47% of is agricultural land and 13 million hectares of that is for agricultural crops

Figure 1. Distribution of agricultural crops land area

 Agriculture Labor Force:
 According to Philippines Statistics Authority (2017), the total agricultural
workforce in about 10.26 million (Figure 2).
 That is 22.30% of the total workforce here in the Philippines
 For the last five years (2013-2017), there is a declining number of agricultural
workforce. From 11.84 million in 2013 it drops to 10.26 million in 2017 (PSA)

Figure 2. Agricultural labor force and percent distribution employed by sector in the
Philippines
 Agriculture output by region (2018)
 Northern Mindanao region had the highest share in crop production in the
Philippines.
 While Central Luzon region had the highest share in livestock, poultry and
fisheries production (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Region with the highest in agriculture outputs in 2018 (PSA)

 Agriculture Production Percent Distribution
 Crop sector had the highest percent contribution on the total agricultural output in
the country in 2018, which accounted 52.71% (Figure 4).
 While other sectors like livestock, poultry and fisheries accounted 17.11%,
16.74% and 13.45% respectively.

Figure 4. Agricultural production distribution by sector in the Philippines 2018 (PSA)

 Top three crops with the highest volume of production in the Philippines in 2017
according to PSA

Table 1. Top three crops by volume of production in the Philippines (2017)

Crops Volume of Production (tonnes)

1. Sugarcane 29,286,900

2. Rice/Palay 19,276,300

3. Coconut 14,049,100

 Top three crops with the widest area planted and harvested in the Philippines in 2017
according to PSA.

Table 2. Top three crops by area of production in the Philippines (2017)

Crops Volume of Production (hectares)

1. Rice/Palay 4,811,800

2. Coconut 3,612,300

3. Corn 2,552,600
 Agricultural Economy
 Agriculture sector accounted 8.1% share (2018) in the total Gross Domestic
Product of the Philippines along other sectors of the economy (Figure 5).
 While in 2018 also, PhP 1.615 billion Gross Value Added (GVA) was recorded in
agriculture at current price (PSA)
 Crop sub-sector accounted 48.2% of the total GVA in agriculture at current price

Figure 5. Agriculture GVA and GDP share in the economy in 2018

 Agricultural Trade
 Total value of Agricultural Import in 2018 was Php 742.60 billion, while Agricultural
export value was Php. 322.16 billion (PSA)
 Moreover, agriculture sector shares 12.5% on the total imports in the country and
8.8% share on the total export (PSA).
 Top agricultural Imports and Exports:

Figure 6. Top agricultural import and export commodity in the Philippine in 2018 (PSA)
III. Development of Agriculture
 The First Agricultural Revolution
 Stone Age to Mesolithic Age
 Humans were hunters, gathers and nomadic.
 This is the beginnings of agriculture where some tools were developed and
they started cultivating plants
 Neolithic Age
 This is the rise of great civilization and human culture, which rapidly improves
the agriculture.
 Selection of plants and animals was practiced that resulted in the wide genetic
diversity and forms of crops and livestock that we grow today.
 Farming tools and practices were improved.

 The Second Agricultural Revolution (18th to 19th Century)

 This is the time were agricultural innovations explodes
 Led to increase in agricultural productivity
 Modern design of plows were developed
 Some of this innovation were:
 Wolds’s first seed drill invented by Jetho Tull
 Animal drawn mechanical reaper or the Cyrus McCormick’s repaper invented
by Cyrus McCormick

 The Third Agricultural Revolution/Green Revolution (20 th Century)

 This the start of mechanization of agriculture
 Gasoline powered machines were invented that led to development of tractors
from traditional animal drawn plows for tillage.
 Technological advancement, nHYV’s, fertilizer, pesticides management
practices
 Birth of Green Revolution (Mid 20th Century)
 Norman Borlaug “Father of Green Revolution”
 Together with Ford and Rockefeller Foundation were heavily involved in its
initial development
 He developed dwarf, high yielding and disease resistant varieties (Pitic 62 and
Penjamo 62)
 Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. He credited with saving a
billion people from starvation

 21st Century Agriculture

 Different technological and practices in agriculture were developed
 Sustainable Agriculture
 Precession Agriculture
 Biotechnology approach in production
 Organic agriculture etc.
IV. Challenges in Philippine Agriculture
 Low Productivity
 Increase agricultural production in the country can solely come from productivity
improvement (increasing output per unit of area)
 No new area can be opened up for new cultivation
 Philippines land area: 30 million ha. – 47% is agricultural land (13 million ha.)
 Prime agricultural lots are located around main urban and high density areas
 According to land capability, 78.31% of the alienable and disposable land are
prime agricultural areas, 6.1 million ha. Are highly suitable for cultivation.

 Limited Access to Credit and Agricultural Insurance

 Farmer in the Philippines have more than double the poverty rate of their
counterparts in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.
 39% of the farmers did not have access to formal credit
 Poverty is largely due to our defective agricultural credit system

 Low Farm Mechanization and Inadequate Postharvest Facilities

 Philippine is 1.23 horsepower per hectare (hp/ha) farm mechanization level
(2012)

Table 3. Mechanization level of other Asian countries in 2012

Other Asian Country Farm Mechanization Level

Japan 7.00 hp/ha

South Korea 4.11 hp/ha

China 4.10 hp/ha

 Inadequate Irrigation
 Of 13.508 M agricultural land, 3.3 M is consider as irrigatable up to 3% slope
(NIA)
 6.1 M ha as irrigatable, including areas that are relatively more difficult to irrigate
and up to 8% slope (World Bank)
 In 2018, of 3.1 M irrigatable areas, 61% areas were served by irrigation facilities
 1.2 M hectare remaining to be develop

 Scant Support for Research and Development (R&D)

 Ideal average spending of R&D should be 1% of the country’s gross domestic
product (GDP) according to World Bank.
  Research and development expenditure (percent of GDP) in Philippines was
reported at 0.13793 % in 2013, according to the World Bank collection of
development indicators.

 Low Number of Researchers and Scientist

 Total number of R&D personnel is 10,277
 24% or 2,480 are researchers in agricultural science
 1,283 (52%) are in the government
 47.8% worked in the public (1,145) and private HEI’s (41)
 11 researchers (0.44) are in private non-profit organization
 Philippines has a ratio of 188 of R&D personnel per million population in 2013
but the UNESCO required to have 330 R&D personnel per million population.

 Soil and Water Degradation

 25 billion tons of top soil/year are lost – deforestation and overgrazing
 Based on a classification by the Global Assessment of Human-induced Soil
Degradation (GLASOD), about 70% of the country’s land area has been
degraded with soil erosion as the dominant forms of land degradation
(Briones, 2009).
 Agriculture, which accounts for 70 percent of water withdrawals worldwide,
plays a major role in water pollution.
 Farms discharge large quantities of agrochemicals, organic matter, drug
residues, sediments and saline drainage into water bodies.
 Exploding demand for food with high environmental footprints, such as meat
from industrial farms, is contributing to unsustainable agricultural
intensification and to water-quality degradation. (FAO &WLE)
 Nitrate from agriculture is now the most common chemical contaminant in the
world’s groundwater aquifers.
 Aquatic ecosystems are affected by agricultural pollution; for example,
eutrophication caused by the accumulation of nutrients in lakes and coastal
waters impacts biodiversity and fisheries.
 Despite data gaps, 415 coastal areas have been identified experiencing
eutrophication.

 Climate change and Natural Resources Degradation

 Adverse impacts such as flooding incidence, drought soil degradation, water
shortage and increase pest and diseases constantly threaten agricultural
output and productivity
 The Philippines is third among the 173 countries in the world in terms of
disaster risk index (World Risk Report, 2011)
 As projected, temperature and precipitation will rise to 1.5 ºC and 4.9%
respectively in Philippines by 2050. This will have an adverse effect on
agriculture sector especially on crop production sector.
  Weak Extension Services
 Due to decentralization of Agricultural Extension Service
 DA’s resource allocation for the decentralization of agricultural services is not
felt at the local level.)
 It hampers diffusion and adoption of recommended farm practices and
technologies
 This attributed to:
 Inadequate operational fund
 Lack of human resources
 Ageing number of extension workers (43 to 64 years old)

 Ageing Filipino Farmers

 Average age of Filipino farmers: 57 years old
 Filipino life expectancy: Male 67 years; female 75.3 year (Knoema, 2017)
 Average life expectancy of a Filipino: 71 years (Knoema, 2017)
 Survival rate of male Filipino at 65 years old: 64.8%
 Survival rate of female Filipino at 65 years old: 79.4%
 Ten years from now our number of farmer will drastically decline and today
few young generations are interested in Agriculture.

V. Prospects for Philippine Agriculture (Based on Phil. Development Plan 2017)

 Focused on agricultural development.
 Ambitious spending program of the government to build various infrastructure
(Build-Build-Build Program)
 Agricultural Mechanization
 Target growth on Agriculture sector sub-sector 2022
 The projected growth on Gross Value Added (GVA) by 2022 in agriculture
will be 2.5 to 3.5 percent
 While crop sub-sector project to increase 2.0 to 3.0 percent in GVA at the
end of 2022

Figure 7. Plan target increase in GVA for Agriculture and agriculture sub-sector by 2022 (PDP)
VI. The Nature and Featured of Philippine Agricultural System
 Agricultural Systems are assemblage of components which are united by some forms
of interaction and interdependence and which operate within a prescribed boundary
to achieve a specified agricultural objective on behalf of the beneficiaries of the
system
 Major Agricultural Systems in the Philippines:
 Low land farming systems
 Mainly grow rice and sugarcane
 Rainfed farming systems
 Mainly grows coconut, corn and cassava
 Upland farming systems
 Mainly grows legumes and some vegetables
 Climate Types in the Philippines
 In the Philippines there are four climate types (Table 4)

Table 4. Types of climate in the Philippines

CLIMATE TYPE DESCRIPTION

With two pronounced seasons, dry from November to April and wet
I
during the rest of the year

No dry season and with very pronounced, maximum rainfall from

II
November to January

Seasons are not very pronounced and relatively dry from November to
III
January

IV Rainfall is more or less evenly distributed throughout the year

VII. Origin, Domestication and History of Some Important Crops

 Nicolai Vavilov (1887-1943) a Russian agronomist, botanist and geneticist best
known for having identified the centers of origin of cultivated crops.
 Vavilov proposed eight centers of origin of cultivated plants, fundamental and ancient
centers of agriculture in the world.
 Eight Center of Origin of Cultivated Crops according to Vavilov
1. China 5. Mediterranean
2. India 6. Ethiopia
3. Central Asia 7. Southern Mexico and Central America
4. Asia Minor 8. South America
  World centers of Origin of Cultivated Crops
CENTER CROPS
Rice, Radish, Chinese cabbage, sorghum,
1. China Onion, Cucumber, Soybean, Orange,
Sugarcane
2. India Chickpea, pigeon pea, rice bean, cowpea
mungbean, eggplant. Tamarind, mango
2a. India Banana, Mangosteen, Pumelo, Job’s tears,
Abaca
3. Central Asia Apple, Grape, Carrot, Spinach
4. Asia Minor Durum wheat, Alfalfa, Cherry, Rye
5. Mediterranean Cabbage, lettuce, asparagus, Pea, celery
6. Ethiopia Coffee, Okra, Pearl Millet, Castor Bean
7. Southern Mexico and Maize, common bean, Sweetpotato, Papaya,
Central America Chayote
8. South America
Potato, Pineapple, Cashew, Peanut, Rubber
8a. Chile
tree, Cacao, Guava, Tomato
8b. Brazil Paraguay

VIII. World Food Situation and Center of Production

 11 percent (1.5 billion ha.) of the globe’s land surface (13 billion ha) is used in
crop production.
 2.818 billion tonnes of cereals produce in the world in 2017
 7.5 billion world population (2019)
 9.7 billion world population projected in 2050
 Top five Cereal Crops Produced in the World (2017)

Figure 8. Area harvested for cereals and top 5 cereals crop produced in the world
 Top ten maize producers in the world (2017)

Figure 9. Top ten producers of maize by volume in the world (2017)

 Top ten rice producers in the world (2017)

Figure 10. Top 10 producers of maize by volume in the world (2017)

 Top five vegetable crop produced in the world (2017)

Figure 11. Area harvested and top five vegetable crop produced in the world

 Top ten tomato producers in the world (2017)

Figure 12. Top ten producers of tomato by volume in the world (2017)
 Top five fruit crops produced in the world (2017)

Figure 13. Area harvested and top five fruit crops produced in the world (2017)

 Top ten watermelon producers in the world (2017)

Figure 14. Top ten producers of watermelon by volume in the world (2017)
 Top five fiber crops produced in the world (2017)

Figure 15. Area harvested and top five fiber crops produced in the world (2017)

 Top ten cotton producers in the world (2017)

Figure 16. Top ten producers of watermelon by volume in the world (2017)
IX. Philippine Agriculture Research Centers
 Philippines are composed of different agriculture research center (Figure 17). From
different government and private institution in the country for our agriculture
development.

Figure 17. Agriculture research centers in the Philippines

X. Definition and Scope of Crop Science

 Definition of crop science
 It is the study of the world’s major food, feed, turf, fiber crops and their
environment. It is a broad discipline encompassing breeding, genetics,
production and management.
 Is the scientific knowledge, learning, practice and understanding of the
cultivation, management, processing and production of crops and how scientific
principles can be applied to each of these.

 Scope and division of crop science

 Agronomy (argos – field & nomos – management)  deals with the principles
and practices of managing field crops and soil (extensive management).
 Crops under agronomy: cereals, legumes, forage, fiber, sugars, root and
tuber crops.
 Horticulture (hortus – garden & colere – cultivate)  deals with the principles
and practices of intensive management of crops
 Crops under horticulture: vegetables, fruits, ornamentals, medicinal, and
plantation crops
Activity/Methodology

 Lecture with class discussion

 Oral recitation
Materials

 PowerPoint presentation
 Educational videos
References

 BAUTISTA, O.K. 1994, Introduction to Tropical Horticulture. (2 nd Ed.) SEAMEO, SEARCA

and UPLB. College Laguna
 BROWN E.O, EBORA R.V and DECENA F.C. 2018. The Current State, Challenges and
Plans for Philippine Agriculture. FFTC Agricultural Policy Platform (FFTC-AP). Presented to
the 59th Meeting of NPO’s, Yogyakarta, Indonesia on October 2-4, 2018
 CONTRERAS, S. 2018. The Philippine Agriculture and the threats on Land Degradation. A
paper presented at International Regional Science Meeting. Land Cover/Land Use Changes
and Impacts on Environment in South/Southeast Asia, 28-30th May, 2018, Philippines
 LANTICAN, R.M. 2001. The Science and Practice of Crop Production. Southeast Asian
Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture. UPLB. ISBN 971-560-
060-3
 Philippine Statistic Authority, 2020, Statistics, www.psa.gov.ph/statistics

Questions to Answer

1. What is Agriculture?
2. Describe the current status of the Philippine agriculture today.
3. Enumerate and briefly discussed the problems and issues in the Philippine agriculture.
4. Identify the origin of the top 10 most cultivated crops the Philippines.
5. What is the major role of different agriculture research centers in the Philippines to the
development of agriculture sector in our country?