The Importance Of Agriculture In The Philippines

INTRODUCTION

In January 2015, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) reported that agriculture is one of the major sectors that had generated employment of 158, 000 Filipinos in 2014 but in January 2015 alone had already provided a boosting figure of 101,000 of employment contributing to the 3% of total employment growth. This shows that agriculture is one of the sectors that contributeto the improvement of Philippine economy. Despite the significance of this sector to the country’s economy, availability of financial resources is still a problem especially to small-scale farmers who have fractional access to credit from commercial lending institutions. One of the ways to ease this problem is through the help of cooperatives, specifically the agricultural cooperatives, which are now being supported by government agencies like the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). DOLE Integrated Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program, popularly known as DILEEP, coincides with the government’s general plan of immense job generation to extensively decrease poverty of less privileged and landless farmers. The Republic Act No. 9520, also known as “THE PHILIPPINE COOPERATIVE CODE OF 2008”, defined cooperative as an independent organization of volunteers with a common social, economic and cultural interests and objectives. For them to achieve their objectives, each member shall have fair capital contributions, in addition to being a loyal supporter of their