ABSTRACT

In a distant barrio of a remote Ifugao municipality lived a poverty stricken extended family who grappled with hunger and malnutrition. National and international development programs operating in Ifugao during the early 1990s made great efforts to incorporate women into their overall development efforts, in a sincere attempt to raise the social, nutritional, general health, and economic positions of women in Ifugao. In rural areas such as Ifugao the percentage of income spent on food decreased from 58.8 percent in 1988 to 53.6 percent in 1991. Low wage rates had an impact on most Ifugao peasant families who relied mainly on agricultural production for their income as well, particularly during the dry and monsoon seasons when many foods could not be cultivated due to the weather. In Ifugao, the larger international development programs indirectly influenced Ifugao people to conform to existing social structures, while at the same time preparing them to accept a western, individualistic, capitalist mode of economic development.