The focus of my thesis was to understand the factors that enable Filipino farmers to enter, stagnate or thrive, or exit from coconut production. In order to do this we first needed to understand the situation that coconut farmers are subject to. By undertaking a questionnaire we could look at different aspects of the coconut industry in the Philippines from the perspective of different coconut experts.
With support from my supervisors I developed a questionnaire targeting coconut industry experts. The questionnaire consisted of 46 questions and incorporated key areas such as migration, diversification, system services, and waste management. Ten different respondents gave their opinions and experiences to the mixture of open ended questions and ranked questions.
Before undertaking the questionnaire we were familiar with the situation that exists in the Philippines, from undertaking a literature review prior to our research. We were aware that poverty was rampant in coconut producing areas and that there was work to be done in order to alleviate poverty among households. Responses from the questionnaire aided our research as we could visualise trends and being to understand what factors persuaded farmers to continue producing coconuts when they receive very little in return for their work.
The video below gives a basic introduction to the situation that coconut farmers in the Philippines face and actions required to alleviate poverty in the country.