AGRI-TOURISM MASTER PLAN (Year 2006-2020)

6.0 DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES AND ISSUES

The issues and challenges that are presented here cut across other sectors and sub-sectors and not only for tourism promotion and agricultural development because these issues and challenges are results of very recent planning workshops that included a general assessment of the Biliran situation.

6.1 Development Issues

Poverty

• Based on the 2000 survey, 34.8%or about 9, 975 families are considered poor. They are the families whose annual per capita income fall below the annual per capita poverty threshold
• Around 27% of these poor families live in the urban area while 37.4 poor families live in the rural area.
• While the overall poverty incidence declined from 39.6% in 1997 to 34.8% in 2000, the number of poor families in the urban area increased from 18.8% in 1997 to 27% in 2000 while there was a remarkable decrease of poor families from 46.7% in 1997 to 37.4% in 2000.

Annual Per Capita Poverty Threshold and Poverty Incidence of Population
Province of Biliran, Urban and Rural, 1997 & 2000

Province	Annual Per Capita Poverty Threhold1		Magnitude of Poor Population2		Incidence of Poor Population3
	(in pesos)				(in percent)
	1997	2000	1997	2000	1997	2000
Biliran	8,626	10,072	65,878	60,352	44.9	45.1
Urban	8,682	9,914	9,208	13,061	24.6	38
Rural	8,617	10,116	56,670	47,291	51.9	47.5

Source: National Statistical Coordination Board
________
Note:
1. The annual per capita income required or the amount to be spent to satisfy nutritional requirements (2,000 calories) and other basic needs.
2. The number of population whose annual per capita income falls below the annual per capita poverty threshold
3. The proportion of poor population to the total population.

Annual Per Capita Poverty Threshold and Poverty Incidence of Poor Families
Province of Biliran, Urban and Rural, 1997 & 2000

Province	Annual Per Capita Poverty Threshold1		Magnitude of Poor Families2		Incidence of Poor Families3
	(in PhP)				(in percent)
	1997	2000	1997	2000	1997	2000
Biliran	8,626	10,072	11,877	9,975	39.6	34.8
Urban	8,682	9,914	1,417	1,931	18.8	27
Rural	8,617	10,116	10,461	8,044	46.7	37.4

Source: National Statistical Coordination Board

Employment

• The province has a total of 82,000 working age population (15 years old and above).
• Employment rate as of April 2003 has greatly decreased from 95.0% in April 2002 to 85.1 in April 2003.
• Labor Force Participation Rate (LPFR) in the province was placed at 84.8% or about 70,000 as of April 2003.

Labor and Employment, Province of Biliran, 2002 and 2003

.	April 2002	April 2003
Total Labor Force (in thousand)	72	82
Labor Force Participation Rate	76.8	84.8
Employment Rate	95	85.1
Unemployment Rate	5	14.9
Visible Underemployment Rate	26	13.5

Source: National Statistical Coordination Board

Labor Force and Employment Status of Household Population 15 years old and over Province of Biliran 2000 and 2003 (in thousands)

.	2000			2002
	Total	Women	Men	Total	Women	Men
HH Population 15 years & over	89	46	43	95	46	49
In the Labor Force	47	23	24	70	29	41
Employed	54	21	33	66	27	39
Unemployed	3	2	1	4	2	2

Source: Regional Social and Economic Trends, National Statistical and Coordination Board

Family Income

1. As of 2000, 76.91% of the families engaged in entrepreneurial activities are engaged in agriculture as compared to year 1997 of 68.32% while there was a decline of about 7% in the non-agriculture sector of 23.02% in 2000 and 30.95% in 1997.
2. On the wage and salaries sector, there was also a decrease of about 11.41%from39.91 in 1997 to 28.5% in 2000.
3. There is also a remarkable shift under the wage and salaries from agriculture to non-agriculture sector.
4. On the other sources of income, there was a slight increase of 2.85% from 1997 of 22.93% to 25.78% in 2000.

Main Source of Income, Province of Biliran, 1997 and 2000

Main Source of Income	No. of Families
	1997	2000
Wage and salaries	11,962	8,187
Agriculture	6,310	1,576
Non-agriculture	5,653	6,611
Entrepreneurial Activities	11,134	13,073
Agriculture	7,607	10,063
Non-Agriculture	3,447	3,010
Other Sources of Income	6,875	7,387

Source: National Statistics Office

6.2 Problem Analysis

(A clearer analysis is presented in the SWOT Analysis)

Heavy dependence on agriculture of the province beset with low productivity is its foremost concern. The various factors that contributes to the problem on low productivity is as follows:

1. The major constraint to become productive is capital. Lack of access to credit among the farmers/fisher folks and the limited investments from the private sector, restrained efforts to go into innovative and more efficient enterprises. This situation perpetuated the economy to be dependent on traditional crops such as palay, coconut and banana.
2. Low income/savings from limited production. This further led to limited capital or limited access to credit as many small farmers are considered credit risks because of their minimal net worth that can be pledged as collateral.
3. Loose link between the research and educational system and the demand for skilled manpower and better technologies also made a significant impact on the efficiency of the agricultural sector.
4. The deficiencies in skills, knowledge and technologies in turn deplete the capacity of the resource to produce more or regenerate.
5. The capability of the government to deliver basic services, facilities and policy support affected the investment levels, farm technologies, skills of labor and the depletion of resources of the sector.

6.3 Development Challenges

The province abounds with two very important resources, the human and natural resources that are not effectively put to use. The main challenge that confronts the province is in harnessing the full potentials of its people and its rural endowment to productive use in areas where it has the potentials and comparative advantage. These challenges includes:

1. Improving the productive capacity of the agriculture sector along agri-processing and non-traditional commodities;
2. Shifting employment opportunities to small and medium industries and the service sectors;
3. Expansion of the industry and service sectors in the rural areas;
4. Provision of cheaper and reliable power to ensure that our abundant energy resources could be effectively used to attract investors into the province;
5. Application of advancement in transport and telecommunications as useful tools in various economic activities;
6. Developing the skills of the human resources to support the manpower requirements of the industry and service sectors.