ABSTRACT
It was believed in the 1970s and 1980s that high population pressure on a closed land frontier is one of the major causes of rural poverty in Asia. High population pressure leads to a decline in the size of farmland and an increase in the incidence of landlessness even though farm income is a major source of rural household income (Estudillo and Otsuka 1999). Indeed, the incidence of poverty stands at a higher rate among the land-poor and landless households than with the farming households in the Philippines (Estudillo et al. 2001b, 2008). Although farmland has become scarce, agricultural wages remain low and demand for agricultural labor is uncertain and limited. In addition, there has been an increasing acceleration in the use of labor-saving technologies, such as mechanization and direct seeding, which further contributes to a reduction in agricultural labor demand. Indeed, David and Otsuka (1994) found that the Green Revolution in Asia has had only modest effects on the demand for agricultural labor in contrast to its dramatic effects on grain yield.
