Labor and Credit Elsewhere in Buguias Municipality

Along the Mountain Trail, in Lo-o, and in Bad-ayan, very different linkages between labor and capital have developed. In these areas, a small number of large-scale farmers, many of whom also sell inputs and deal in vegetables, came to dominate their communities. Such growers have managed to raise considerable capital on their own, and many acquired finesse in tapping governmental and other exterior sources. Large-scale farmers have always secured bank loans more readily than have small-scale growers (Russell 1983:96), and the Chinese among them have enjoyed ample financing through their far-flung ethnic networks.

Along the Mountain Trail, in Lo-o, and in Bad-ayan, poor Ilocanos and migrant Igorots (from beyond the vegetable frontier), anxious for even exiguous wages, have provided inexpensive labor. Farmers in these areas accordingly devote only a small percentage of their outlays to their workers; C. DeRaedt estimates that labor accounts for only 15 percent of the average Sayangan farmer's production costs (1983:11), while an FAO report concurs that labor is the least costly "input" for the large agricultural holdings along the Mountain Trail (1984:21).