Social construction of the environment and smallholder farmers' participation in ‘low-carbon’, agro-industrial crop production contracts in the Philippines

Marvin Joseph F. Montefrio, David A. Sonnenfeld and Valerie A. Luzadis

Ecological Economics, 2015, vol. 116, issue C, 70-77

Abstract: Several studies have suggested that socio-economic factors and production site characteristics are primary determinants of farmers' participation in ‘low-carbon’, agro-industrial (biofuels and oil palm) production contracts. In the Philippines, many smallholder farmers have expressed their intent to participate in intensive production of biofuel crops and oil palm with state and private organizations; others have resisted or remained indifferent. This study looks into smallholders' social construction of the environment and how this may influence their decisions to participate in such production contracts. The study is based on a survey of 462 respondents in eight communities in the province of Palawan. Using regression analysis, it illustrates how smallholders' sense of place and environmental worldviews, together with demographic and socio-economic variables, play significant roles in their decisions to enter into new biofuels (jatropha) and oil palm production contracts. Environmental worldviews are significant when there are strong negative perceptions attached to a particular crop production contract, as in the case of oil palm.

Keywords: Social construction of the environment; Sense of place; Environmental worldview; Contract farming; Farmer decision-making; Ethnicity; Oil palm; Jatropha; Biofuels; Palawan; Philippines (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800915001755
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:116:y:2015:i:c:p:70-77

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.04.017

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland

More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().