PSA-Guimaras conducts Agri Wage Rate Survey

THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)-Guimaras is currently conducting the January 2019 round of Agricultural Wage Rate Survey (AWRS) for palay in 15 households in Guimaras.

These samples are distributed in the five (5) barangays of the province namely Cabungahan, Sapal, and M. Chavez in San Lorenzo and Ayangan and Sebaste in Sibunag.

Three palay households in each sample barangays that hired farm workers will be interviewed by trained Statistical Researchers of PSA using a questionnaire.

The main objectives of the survey are: to generate estimates of average wage rates of agricultural farm workers engaged in the four (4) major crops: Palay, Corn, Coconut and Sugarcane; and to establish basis for computing the average wage rate in agriculture.

It also intends to determine the national and regional averages and variations on wage rates by type of labor, generate gender-based data for wage rates and determine the extent of women’s participation in agricultural production activities.

Statistics on wage rates are useful inputs in investment decisions, policymaking and program formulation related to the agriculture sector.

Among the important data items to be gathered are the daily wage rate of farm workers by crop and by sex; wage rate of farm workers by crop, by basis of payment and by farm activity; number of man-days per hectare by crop, by farm activity, by source of labor and by sex; distribution of hired workers by terms of payment, by crop and by sex; and the distribution of farm households employing hired workers by farm activity, by crop and by sex.

Relatedly, the results of the 2017 AWRS showed that agricultural workers in Western Visayas were paid an average nominal wage rate of PhP 272.80 per day, moreover, palay farms agricultural workers received an average daily nominal wage rate of PhP 280.13.