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Herbicide is essential for DSR. However, it appeared that farmers in CL4
were using less preemergence herbicide than farmers in CL6 and C U. Despite the
use of herbicide, manual weeding was still employed (i.e., as much as 70 h during
the first crop). Hourever, there was relatively less manual weeding during the second
crop.
Farmers in CL4 used less seed, insecticide, and herbicide during the first
crop than farmers in CL6 and CL8 (Table 5). However, during the second crop,
farmers in CL4 used more seed. The same trend was observed in expenditures on
material inputs (e.g., fertilizer, insecticide, and herbicide). Among the clusters, CL6
had the highest cost for hired !abor for the first crop, while CL8 had the lowest. A
significant proportion of hired labor was used for replanting. On the whole, CL8
farmers had the lowest cost.
In terms of productivity, CL4 and CL6 had almost the same yield, while the
yield of CL8 was significantly lower. Cluster CL4 had the highest net benefit among
the clusters, followed by CM. Cluster CL8 had the lowest net benefit (Table 6).
ANALYSIS OF PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS
The production-function model was estimated for each season in 1987-88. The
estimate of the full model produced negative coefficients for nitrogen and potassium
fertilizers, herbicide, and insecticide (Table 7). In the second round of estimation,
the variables that did not have the expected positive sign were taken out of the full
model. The values for both seasons were acceptable: 0.60 for the first crop and
0.86 for the second crop. The elasticities for hired labor at the 0.02 level were
significant for both seasons. However, the eiasticities for seeding rate were
significant only during the second crop. The coefficients of the dummy variables in
every cluster were significant for both seasons. This result shows the importance of
the clusters in shifting the production functions. Based on the coefficients of the
dummy variables, CL4 had the highest coefficient of 1.24. CL6 had only 0.39.
Cluster CL8 was used as the base cluster.
Household income and expenditures
The income and expenditure patterns of farm households were anrllyzed by
examining the income and expenditure flow per month and its total for the year
(Table 6). The period considered was May 1987 to April 1988. Cluster CL4
appeared to have the highest income for the period (P17,248), CL6 had the lowest.
This confirmed the good performance of the CL4 farmers as reflected in their
output. The share of crop sales in farm income only averaged 37%. On a cluster
basis, CL4 had 44% of farm income derived from rice.
On average, income was distributed evenly, except in September and April
when income was relatively higher. However, when cluster analysis was applied,