Capital and Labor

In the early postwar years, virtually all Buguias residents made tax declarations on their vegetable fields. Land availability was no problem; in fact, arable land was more abundant than before, now that light soils could be cultivated. Nor did the average farmer suffer labor constraints. Family workers sufficed for most tasks, and in the few bottleneck periods, such as time of harvest, neighbors would usually assist. Since growers now planted on different sched-

ules, no longer were there periods of concentrated work throughout Buguias. But if land and labor were reasonably abundant, capital was scarce. And in the new economy, capital had become vital.

Sources of Capital

Throughout the postwar period, most young couples have been strained to purchase the seeds, fertilizers, and biocides needed for a successful farming venture. Many turn to their wealthier neighbors and relatives, or to vegetable traders, to acquire a stake. In the usual arrangement, called "supply," the backer purchases all inputs and the borrower provides all labor with net profits divided equally. A typical supply contract covers only a single crop cycle; the financing of the next planting depends on the success of the first. A single highly profitable harvest can often cover the expenses of the subsequent crop, provided the increase is not set aside for a feast. A low price at harvest, however, can force the laboring couple to negotiate a new supply agreement, and perhaps even to borrow extra money to purchase necessities before the next crop is due.

Caught between price fluctuations and religious obligations, most farmers have fallen deeply into debt. If desperate, they can "mortgage" their land in a salda arrangement. As Davis (1973:60) explains, salda differs from the Western mortgage in that the borrower theoretically loses claim to the land until he or she repays the principal. In actuality, the original holder usually retains control in exchange for a share, often one-fifth, of the harvest. After a stipulated period elapses, the borrowing couple can retain ownership only if they pay off the interest and the principal. If they default, as was not uncommon during the early vegetable-growing years, the land passes permanently to the creditor. Again, the original owners may still cultivate it, but now as outright sharecroppers. A "bankrupt" couple wishing to avoid sharecropping can declare and clear new lands, but this is an expensive, labor-consuming ordeal—and increasingly so as the more accessible lands have been progressively claimed.

As virgin land grew scarce in the 1960s and 1970s, the practice of salda declined; few farmers now wished to risk their properties. Still, during emergencies (often religious), this could be a poor

couple's sole recourse. On a ritual occasion, a parcel might be mortgaged, not for money but for sacrificial livestock.

Most vegetable dealers have long doubled as agricultural input suppliers, advancing fertilizers and biocides to cash-short farmers in exchange for a guaranteed sale of the prospective crop at a discount. Such deals are often extended, since a poor market at harvest time can quickly send the farmer deeper into debt. Dealers find this consistent with their own interests as well; it ensures them a steady supply of vegetables, and they can always recoup some of their losses through the discounts they receive. The farmers also benefit from the perennial refinancing that does not jeopardize their lands. Davis (1973:208, 209) finds this system mutualistic, as it provides both parties with a measure of security in a capricious business, while Russell (1987) counters that it allows the trader to control the relationship to his or her own benefit. Vigorous disputes do arise when a farmer, encumbered with years of outstanding debt, suddenly dies. In this eventuality, the vegetable dealer might try to collect from the heirs, who in turn may argue that these matters should have been settled years earlier and that the dealer deserves a loss for letting the debt persist indefinitely. Such arguments can only be settled on an individual basis in tong tongan deliberations.

Two additional sources of capital emerged in the late 1960s. The first, local credit cooperatives, played a relatively minor role. The second, a government-backed program of bank loans, proved almost revolutionary. The land boom it precipitated, as well as the subsequent vegetable bust, will be discussed in chapter 8.

Sharecropping

Even though most farmers in Buguias own land, many have inadequate holdings. Land-hungry couples usually look to sharecrop subsidiary plots owned by neighbors and relatives. As a general rule, poorer families sharecrop the fields of wealthier villagers, but household demographics as well as temporary turns of luck also influence tenancy arrangements. Young couples with many children often take on the fields of others, only to graduate from sharecropping later in life. If their children leave Buguias, such a couple might even find themselves with a surfeit of cropland. On a shorter time scale, two households can experience widely divergent for-

tunes depending on their cropping strategies; a couple might let out some of its land to sharecroppers in one year, only to lose some of its own fields (through salda) the next and be forced itself into sharecropping.

Unlike other villages in the region, Buguias Central has not had a single family that has been able to accumulate such expansive tracts of land as to necessitate the extensive use of sharecropper labor. Those couples who garnered great wealth preferred investments other than Buguias land. In Buguias, tenancy and labor arrangements most often link farmers who, despite disparities of wealth, are essentially of the same social class, and often closely related as well.

The population of Buguias mounted rapidly during the postwar period. As the inner village became increasingly crowded, many young couples chose to clear new lands on the higher slopes east of town. Relying at first on a "supply" sponsor, the fates of these gardeners depended on their luck at market, their farming strategies, and their ceremonial expenditures. But farming in any remote area presents heavy demands, since even after the plots are cleared, both supplies and vegetables have to be ported to and from the road. Many young adults therefore have preferred to relocate on the Mountain Trail where they can work as sharecroppers for large-scale growers. Most hope to return eventually and acquire land in Buguias, a reasonable expectation only if they harvest a jackpot crop.

Wage and Cooperative Labor

Even farmers cultivating modest plots often hire wage labor at harvest time. Growers rush their harvests, especially if prices are high and the crops perishable. Most farmers turn to neighbors and relatives with a loose expectation of eventual reciprocation. Wage agreements actually came to be preferred over work exchanges since the implied finality leaves both parties free from future commitments that could conflict with their own schedules. Of course, poorer couples disproportionally rely on wage work, especially after opportunities diminished in the 1970s and 1980s. Nevertheless, wages in Buguias have remained much higher than those along the Mountain Trail, in part because no outside workers (Ilocanos and North-

ern Kankana-eys) lodge here. In 1986, when a full day's labor earned 15 to 20 pesos in Natubleng, workers in Buguias could earn as much as 35 pesos.

One specialized task has been particularly well rewarded with cash, namely the portage of vegetables from field to road. This job requires great strength and stamina, and is usually undertaken by adolescent boys and young men. Growers pay by weight and distance, with some variation for competitive bidding. Those strong enough to carry a number of sacks in quick succession receive ample rewards, and the best can reportedly earn 75 pesos in less than a full day.

Traditional labor exchange, ogbo, has rarely been applied to vegetable harvesting. Davis (1973:58) argues that hired labor is more efficient, a reasonable position considering the complex individual schedules that would have to be meshed as different growers reach hurried decisions on harvesting dates. Voss (1980) sees informal reciprocity in wage-labor agreements and argues that it is a modified form of labor exchange. This view is reasonable when applied to the few remote villages east of Buguias that have formed a semicooperative system of wage-labor exchange to bypass what would be excessive levies for vegetable portage.

Pure labor exchange does persist in select situations. Ogbo is still applied, for example, to the non-urgent but laborious task of new field preparation. Cooperative work parties are also organized along village or hamlet lines for road and trail maintenance, and for the construction of new traditional-style houses. And finally, irrigation system maintenance is performed jointly by all water recipients. Dangas, the prewar system of meat and beer "wages," also survives in attenuated form. Today farmers occasionally hire young men to clear brush or perform other heavy tasks in exchange for meat (often a cow's head) and—equally essential—San Miguel gin.

The clearing of new fields can be accomplished through one's own painstaking labor, through ogbo, or through dangas, but the more prosperous farmers usually hire outsiders on a contract basis. As in the old days, Kalanguya men predominate. Prosperous Buguias growers also commission contract workers to build new terraces, to saw boards, and to perform other skilled or tedious jobs. The worker's daily emolument depends on his rapidity of work, but it often reaches nearly twice the average daily wage. Conten-

tion not uncommonly erupts, however, as contract laborers are tempted to rush through their tasks, leading many employers to complain about the quality of the finished work.

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).