As farm mechanization grow, rural jobs falter

As the push to modernize agriculture through mechanization from land preparation, transplanting and harvesting, rural jobs are getting scarcer even in the face of labor shortages.

At the recent Lakbay-Agham: Catching up with Scientists in Nueva Ecija,” an annual event of the Philippine Rice Research Institute, scientists have cautioned against pursuing mechanization without regard for regional labor conditions that if left unchecked, could roll over rural livelihoods.

Dr. Norvie Manigbas, PhilRice chief science research specialist for plant breeding and biotechnology, said the effects of mechanization on farm employment are far from uniform.

“Actually, the repercussions of mechanized farming, of course, we have a lot of labor, so a lot will be displaced,” Manigbas was quoted as saying.

“There are those who don’t adapt to mechanized farming because there [is] a lot of labor that will be displaced. But in the area where there is no labor, that’s where they really concentrate the mechanized farming,” he pointed out.

For years, provinces like Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Iloilo, Camarines Sur, and Maguindanao have been at the heart of the country’s rice output.

Agricultural mechanization has been pushed for the longest time through legislation, like the  Agricultural and Fisheries Mechanization Act of 2013, aimed at spurring innovation, improving local manufacturing, and providing support services to help farmers adopt appropriate technologies.

Moreover, it led to the creation of the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Engineering and the National Agriculture and Fisheries Mechanization Plan.

Despite these laws, rice farm mechanization saw only a modest uptick in horsepower per hectare over the past decade, based on data from the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech).

In addition, while some regions have advanced more rapidly, many areas still rely on manual labor for core tasks like planting and crop care.

Dr. Flordeliza Bordey, head of PhilRice seeds program, said machines are not a threat to employment as she offered a more positive view when it comes to rice farming.

“At least for the rice industry, I think the loss of jobs is not affected. In fact, as the government is giving more support to the mechanization program, it actually improves labor productivity,” she attests.

She noted that  rice production continued and even thrived—proof, she said, that mechanization can coexist with a resilient workforce.

Yet, in 2021, it went as one of the most challenging years for the agriculture sector in the country, because while it displayed resiliency at the start of the pandemic, the local farm sector eventually wobbled due to the economic impact of the pandemic and supply chain problems.

She acknowledged that job shifts are more likely to occur in downstream sectors like processing and logistics rather than in field-level operations.

“The loss of jobs could be on the different sectors that need more of the processing side… but not on the production side,” she said.

For Dr. Jaime Manalo IV, the future of rural employment may lie not just in the machines, but in experiences.

Manalo IV, research head of the Socioeconomics Division at PhilRice, believes agritourism holds untapped potential to generate jobs, especially for young people trained under the K-12 curriculum.

“What’s great about agritourism sites is that they don’t just hire farm workers. They also need tour guides, marketing people, hospitality staff—it’s an ecosystem,” Manalo said in interview.

Manalo cited the importance of strengthening school-industry collaborations, especially in agriculture-focused senior high school tracks.

“Retirees may be buying farms, but young people can run them—if they’re trained and ready,” he said.