The agriculture sector’s share the country’s total employment stayed on a downtrend from 35.8 percent in 2006 to 33.2 percent last year, showing a 1.9 percent decline on average.
The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) reported that the agriculture sector employed only 11.96 million persons in 2010, noting that although “[t]he number grew by 0.6 percent annually… the sector's contribution to the country's total employment continued to decrease."
The BAS said the bulk of agricultural employment still came from the Western Visayas with 1.16 million persons employed. In comparison, Central Luzon, the Bicol region, Central Visayas, Northern Mindanao, South Cotabato-Saranggani-General Santos City (Socsargen), and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao — overall — had only employed between 800,000 and 860,000 persons.
The bureau also noted that the National Capital Region had employed the least number of agricultural workers at 25,000 last year, an average decline of 8 percent in the last five years — whereas the annual reductions in other regions ranged only between 0.2 to 1 percent.
Last year, 71.1 percent of those employed in the ARMM worked in the agriculture sector – as compared to those in Cagayan Valley, the Cordillera Administrative Region, MIMAROPA (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan), and the Zamboanga Peninsula, where the shares ranged from 50 to 57 percent.
The BAS report pegged the average basic wage and salary of agricultural workers at P152.01 per day. The basic pay had gone up by an average of 3.6 percent annually from 2006 to 2010.
Workers employed in fisheries got a higher basic wage of P169.43 per day as compared to those engaged in agriculture, hunting and forestry activities who received P150.66 per day.
The BAS also reported that child-workers, 5 to 17 years old, totaled 1.35 million in the agriculture sector, corresponding to 61.3 percent of the country's total working children.
The BAS said Northern Mindanao had the most number of working children 5 to 17 years old at 150,000 — accounting for 65.9 percent in the region’s child-workers. — MRT/VS
