Philippines - Agricultural Wage Rate Survey 2017

Philippines Agricultural Wage Rate Survey 2017

Agricultural Survey Prior to the establishment of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in 2013 under Republic Act No. 10625, agricultural wage rate statistics had been produced annually for more than three (3) decades by the former Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) under the program title "Agricultural Labor Survey (ALS)". In 2017, ALS was renamed to Agricultural Wage Rate Survey (AWRS) with the approval of the Statistical Survey Review and Clearance System (SSRCS) of the PSA. This was done as part of the latest improvements in the agricultural statistical system which aimed to avoid confusion with other surveys of the PSA such as the Labor Force Survey (LFS) and to give distinction to AWRS as a statistical activity that focuses on generating information on cost of agricultural farm labor or wage rates of farm workers/laborers in the country.

Historically, the ALS/AWRS has been addressing the data requirements of the agriculture sector regarding characteristics of agricultural farm labor. Initially, only palay and corn were covered by the survey. Then, with the request from the Department of Agriculture (DA) and other data users, two (2) other major crops namely, coconut and sugarcane were included.

The first conduct of ALS was in 1974 upon which it served as a rider to the Rice and Corn Survey (RCS) using a one-page questionnaire. The RCS sub-sample respondents were then interviewed for ALS. However, the adopted scheme did not yield an adequate number of samples that could generate acceptable data on wage rates. Thus, it was decided that quota sampling be adopted until 1989. In 1988, the questionnaire was revised to include all the farm operations for each type of crop and this resulted in four (4) sets of questionnaire.

A Technical Working Group (TWG) on ALS was also created in 1989 to assist the BAS in generating accurate, timely and useful wage rate statistics through improved survey methodology/sampling design and questionnaire. Among the modifications introduced by the TWG were the changes in the framing of questions and inclusion of women's participation in agricultural production activities. On the same year, a manual of operations for ALS was prepared.

In 1990, ALS adopted the new design for rice and corn, which employed probability sampling in the selection of its units in 38 provinces. The frame was based on the 1980 Census of Agriculture. A replicated two-stage stratified sampling design was adopted for ALS palay and corn. Meanwhile, quota sampling was still maintained in other palay and corn provinces as well as for coconut and sugarcane. In 1995, the ALS adopted the 1993 Rice and Corn Production Survey (RCPS) design where the frame was based on the 1991 Census of Agriculture but the same sampling system was used. From 1998 to date, quota sampling was adopted for all the crops. At the same time, changes in the questionnaire were made to get indications of contribution of unpaid labor to total labor.

The latest AWRS-generated data are contained in the report entitled as Trends in Agricultural Wage Rates, 2015-2017. Within the agricultural statistics system, these data are being used in checking and updating the cost of production data. Moreover, statistics on wage rates serve as useful inputs in investment decisions, policy making and program formulation related to the agriculture sector.

ID Number PHL-PSA-AWRS-2017-V2

The scope of the survey included the following:

· Daily wage rate of farm workers;

· Number of mandays per hectare:

· Distribution of hired workers; and

· Distribution of farm households employing hired workers

Topic	Vocabulary	URI
Labor cost	Philippine Statistics Authority
Labor utilization	Philippine Statistics Authority

National and Regional - covering producing provinces of the four crops. Data collection for AWRS palay includes all provinces (except Batanes and Sulu), 51 provinces for corn, 46 provinces for coconut and 19 provinces for sugarcane. AWRS palay and corn excludes Batanes since the province is not covered in the Palay and Corn Production Survey (PCPS) given that AWRS utilizes the samples of PCPS. In the case of Sulu, there were reports that palay farmers did not employ hired laborers in palay farming activity.

Filipino farmers of Palay, Corn, Coconut and Sugarcane who had a complete cropping cycle within the reference period.

Name	Abbreviation	Affiliation	Role
Agricultural Accounts Division	AAD	Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)	Documenter

2019-07-17 Version 1.0

DDI-PHL-PSA-AWRS-2017-V1