LIVED EXPERIENCES OF BAHI FARMERS IN THE GEOGRAPHICAL

DEVELOPMENT OF FARM TO MARKET ROAD:

A THEMATIC STUDY

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 Chapter 1

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

A 7-km road linking Liujiazhang Village to a nearby township in Longxi

County, Gansu Province in northwest China, was built in 2017 and allows villagers to

sell their herbs with significantly lower transportation costs. According to villager Li

Yanjie, before the new road was built, vehicles were reluctant to come because they

frequently got stuck in the mud after it had rained. According to the Outline of the 14th

Five-Year Plan(2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the

Long-Range Objectives Through the Year2035, China will introduce a "road chief"

system in which specific person will be in charge of constructing, managing,

maintaining, and operating rural roads. "Herbal plantation has become our pillar

industry, partly because of the better road access," the document states. A more

developed transportation system will further boost the vitality of rural development and

the market, according to Yang Wude, vice president of Shanxi Agricultural University.

The extensive rural road network has significantly increased rural production and

consumption and played a significant supporting role in developing a moderately

prosperous society in all respects. . Rural roads in China currently cover 4.2 million

km. The nation intends to encourage the convergence of transportation development,

resource development, and industrial growth in rural areas to enable improved rural

vitalization rather than simply constructing more miles of rural highways.

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 The Philippines is an agricultural nation with a total land area of 30 million

hectares, with 47% of that area being used for farming. Farmers are prosperous, there

are many natural resources available, and agri-research organizations exist. Farming

and fishing have historically been the two largest agricultural sub-sectors in the

Philippines because of their topography and tropical climate. With an average

contribution of 20% to GDP, agriculture is one of the major economic drivers in the

Philippines. Agribusiness, which is primarily responsible for this output, produces

about 70% of all agricultural production (CIDA-LGSP, 2003). City of San Fernando,

Pampanga - Work on a farm-to-market road in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija, which is

intended to hasten the transportation of agricultural products to the province's main

markets, is now well underway. The 11.64 million PHP project will be carried out by

the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)-Nueva Ecija 2nd District

Engineering Office. The project is planned to be concluded in July of this year and was

funded by the DPWH and Department of Agriculture (DA) 2022 Convergence

Program. The 1.47-kilometer farm-to-market road would give farmers a quicker and

safer route to convey their fresh produce and wares to the province's major

marketplaces, claims Elpidio Trinidad, the 2nd District Engineer for DPWH-Nueva

Ecija. According to Trinidad, DPWH thinks that supplying the agricultural sector with

necessary infrastructure will hasten the rehabilitation of our farmers who have been

seriously impacted by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. According to him,

building farm-to-market roads is a government priority in agricultural provinces like

Nueva Ecija to lower farm product prices and increase access to food for more people.

According to Trinidad, farmers in the area and the other villages are now profiting from

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the completion of these initiatives. He claimed that farmers could now send their

agricultural products to important markets with ease.

Located in the coastal province of Davao de Oro, Maragusan is a landlocked

municipality. The municipality's land area, which makes up 8.65% of Davao de Oro's

total area, is 394.27 square kilometers, or 152.23 square miles. The municipality's land

area, which makes up 8.65% of Davao de Oro's total area, is 394.27 square kilometers,

or 152.23 square miles. A barangay in the province of Davao de Oro's Maragusan

municipality is called Bahi. 1,112 people were living there as of the 2020 Census. This

made up 1.73% of Maragusan's entire population. On the island of Mindanao, Bahi is

located roughly at 7.2812, 126.2358 (7° 17' North, 126° 14' East). It is estimated that

the elevation at these coordinates is 1,180.2 meters, or 3,872.0 feet, above mean sea

level. To help farmers in the Caragan Valley Settlement to improve their standard of

living, the Department of Agrarian Reform-Mindanao Sustainable Agriculture and

Agrarian Development (DAR-MinSAAD) recently handed over P169 million worth of

infrastructure and Agriculture, Agribusiness, and Agroforestry Development (AAAD)

projects to 1,884 ARBs. A 10.3-kilometer farm-to-market road, 40 rural water tap

stands, and two post-harvest facilities with warehouses and solar dryers were all part of

the support infrastructure project. These facilities were located in the barangays of

Langgawisan and Bahi, both in Maragusan, as well as Cagan in New Bataan. To

strengthen the provision of support services to Karagan Settlement, a fresh batch of

projects—including the cultivation of arabica coffee, cord production, livestock, and

poultry keeping, more farm-to-market roads, irrigation projects, and spring

development—were given over back in the year 2019. Agriculture, particularly in

Barangay Bahi, is the primary source of income for the residents. Since they are unable

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to transfer their products to markets where they will get the highest prices, local small

farmers still exclusively cultivate common crops in our neighborhood.

On the subject of the Geographical Development of Farm to Market Road, no

studies were undertaken in the town of Maragusan to examine residents' opinions and

day-to-day interactions with the road's continuous construction. Even though other

studies are similar, this study is significantly more unique and exclusive than others.

(1) It concentrates on the farmers' perspectives of the ongoing farm-to-market road

construction (2) This study investigates and examines the advantages and benefits of

the road construction to the farmers (3) It also touches on the five geographic themes

in Barangay Bahi and how they utilize it to their advantage. The researchers aim to

figure out how farmers of Bahi, may access services and infrastructure development

initiatives. Given that there is currently a local government drive to create a farm-to-

market road, it is important to comprehend their struggles and experiences both before

and now on the ongoing farm-to-market development. This research was conducted to

better understand how the farm-to-market road affects the quality of life of the farmers

and before and after the local government builds the ongoing farm-to-market road, we

will have a greater chance of observing the variations in farmers' agricultural

livelihoods.

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Research Questions:

The current study was undertaken to uncover and reveal the lived experiences

of the farmers in light of the geographic development of the continuing farm-to-market

road in Barangay Bahi Farmers. The purpose of this study is to answer the following

questions and find solutions to the problems that farmers face:

1. What are the 5 geographical themes of Barangay Bahi regarding farm-

to-market road project implementation?

2. What are the challenges encountered by the farmers?

3. How the project does benefit the farmers in the local community?

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 Theoretical Lens

Geography Realm Theory

This study was anchored by the study of Johann Heinrich von Thünen, a

German geographer who developed one of the earliest maps of agricultural land use.

Before there was significant industrialization in Europe and worldwide, the von Thünen

model of agricultural land use was devised in 1826. The Von Thunen model is a crucial

one in geography though it was developed before industry, roads, and even railroads.

The balance between land cost and transportation cost is well-illustrated by the Von

Thunen model. The cost of land rises the closer one gets to a metropolis. The farmers

of the Isolated State strike a balance between the cost of land, profit, and transportation

to create the most economically viable product for the market. Of course, things don't

work out the way they would in a model in the real world. For starters, von Thünen's

model unequivocally shows that, for a given set of items, distance to market does indeed

have geographical development an impact on profitability. This makes the model

broadly applicable for goods produced close to a market, demonstrating that goods

produced close to a town have the potential to be more profitable, though even in this

case, a modern, globalized world means that distant labor could result in lower prices

for specific goods. In nations where agriculture and grazing play a significant economic

role, land use intensification does seem to be related. To construct more sustainable

forestry production models, other forestry models have found von Thünen's concepts

to be applicable in balancing land management and calculating the economic value of

forestry. Rental revenue can be linked with models for ecosystem services.

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Growth Center Theory

This study was anchored by the theory of French geographer Perroux, known

as the theory of the growth pole. It explains the effects of the growth center's presence

on development in a given region but does not, by itself, explain where the growth

centers are currently located or where they will be in the future. The goal of central

place theory, an urban geography theory, is to explain the quantity, scope, and variety

of market services in a commercial system or human settlements in a residential system.

To explain how cities are distributed across the landscape spatially, it was first

introduced in 1933. The theory's central tenet is that economic growth or development

is not constant over time but rather occurs in and around a particular pole. This pole is

distinguished by a primary industry that connects other industries mostly through

indirect and direct development.

Social Constructivism Theory

This research was anchored on the social constructivism theory of Russian

psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who holds that people actively participate in developing

their knowledge (Schreiber & Valle, 2013). He thought that learning occurs more often

in social and cultural contexts than it does only within the individual (Schreiber &

Valle, 2013). According to the sociological theory of knowledge known as social

constructivism, knowledge is created through social interaction, and that human

development is socially situated. It explains that we acquire knowledge as means of

comprehending the world and that these modes of comprehension are a subset of all

possible modes of comprehending the universe. To create a more socioeconomically

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stable society, basic infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, power, and water, is essential

for communication and daily life (Ali and Pernia, 2003: 4). The main job in the nation's

plans for poverty reduction, economic development, and universal education which

have been dependent upon one another for ultimate success has been the construction

of farm to market road and improving all roads to an equal standard. The way the entire

system had been set up to upgrade an already-existing road contributed to the lack of

structure for maintenance and upgrading.

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