The Precarious State of the Vegetable Industry

Just as the vegetable industry began to recover from the debacle of the mid-1970s, it received another blow: the assassination of Benigno Aquino in 1983 and the attendant round of inflation and economic decline. Once again, the prices of agricultural chemicals, fuel, and consumer goods increased faster than did those of vegetables. Rice especially escalated in cost, and by 1985 many families could scarcely afford their staple food.

The Buguias people had long since adjusted to an inflationary environment by such means as tying salda mortgages to the price of hogs. But inflation eroded their living standards nonetheless. This is evident by viewing wages in swine equivalents. In 1970, thirty ten-hour days brought in enough money to purchase a large hog (at 10 pesos a day for labor, 300 pesos for the animal); by 1985, nearly twice as many days (fifty-seven) were required to obtain the same hog (at 35 pesos a day for labor, 2,000 pesos for the animal). Fuel provides another index of decline. In the late 1960s, most households living in the village center cooked with kerosene or liquid petroleum gas; by the mid-1980s, the majority had returned to wood, an increasingly scarce and expensive commodity itself.

The current economic standing of Benguet's commercial vegetable farmers vis-à-vis other Igorots who have retained subsistence agriculture is another question, and one on which evidence is mixed. Although market gardeners undoubtedly enjoyed greater prosperity prior to the early 1970s, several scholars claim that they are losing ground to, and may well have been surpassed by, subsistence growers. Carol DeRaedt (personal communication) argues that while vegetable farmers are often perceived as wealthy, mostly

because they handle large sums of money and often own vehicles, this is, in fact, belied by their hopeless debt and ever-declining returns. An anonymous contributor to the First Cordillera MultiSectoral Congress (Cordillera Consultative Committee 1984:167) states this in more certain terms: "[The Benguet vegetable farmers] have become poor relatives to their sisters and brothers who have not adopted cash crop agriculture."

Other evidence suggests that such pronouncements are premature. Beyond doubt, all Buguias residents prefer to risk market participation rather than return to subsistence. Elders remember the prewar days as a time of hardship, for which they voice little nostalgia. Indeed, several elderly individuals refused even to discuss the prewar days, saying simply, "Life was bad—we only ate sweet potatoes." Furthermore, communities previously excluded from market participation for lack of infrastructure have readily adopted commercial growing—even if it entails sharecropping—as soon as road access is gained. Of course, one may argue that local people suffer false perceptions here, but I would prefer to trust their judgments. After all, they have in many circumstances proved themselves keen observers of economic opportunity.

In any case, even if Benguet vegetable growers remain the envy of their subsistence-farming neighbors, the good times will not necessarily persist. Many seemingly intractable problems confront the commercial economy. Most of these are environmental, and will be discussed at length in the following pages. But one specifically economic threat is worth considering briefly here: the growth of a competing temperate vegetable industry in central Luzon.

A good measure of state-supported research has recently been directed toward breeding cultivars that can tolerate the lowland climate, at least during the low-sun season. Some success has been achieved with cabbage and cauliflower. Not only does this contribute to a potential oversupply, but the generally inferior lowland vegetables are often intentionally mislabeled as "Baguio produce," undercutting the market for the genuine product. More significant, perhaps, is the emerging vegetable center of Tagaytay, a few hours drive south of Manila (see Figoy 1984:37). Here a cool ridge top blessed with excellent highway connections to the capital offers an ideal environment for temperate crops. But the Philippine economy

is not expanding quickly enough to absorb the increased supply, and the Benguet farmers may well suffer as a consequence. Despite both declining living standards and the precarious state of the entire industry, the growing of vegetables still presents a strong lure. Many farmers can easily weather economic turmoil and change. In frontier zones, new opportunities for accumulation continually emerge, drawing ever more villages into the commercial network. But the biggest attraction is the jackpot. As long as it is still possible for a lucky farmer to realize great profits on a single crop, few will resist the temptations of the vegetable economy. But as the local population quickly expands, the possibility of a major jackpot harvest will be open to ever fewer farmers.