How Much Has People Empowerment Progressed among Small Farmers and Fisherfolk? State of People's Organizations in the Philippines

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This paper attempts to quantify government's performance in empowering small farmers and fishers following the provisions of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) or Republic Act 8435. It establishes four dimensions of empowerment that may be used to measure empowerment and presents evidence of how government has performed under each of these dimensions. It concludes that government has been on track in following AFMA’s prescriptions for small farmers and fisherfolk empowerment. However, its efforts are coming too little, too late, although there are strong indications that such effort can be upscaled and can still achieve the empowerment objectives of AFMA if the government can undertake certain short-term and long-term policy measures.

Comments to this paper are welcome within 60 days from the date of posting. Email publications@pids.gov.ph.