CARP tillers have more appliances

In the countryside, it’s no longer about having many carabaos but having television sets and refrigerators in the house.

This was the conclusion of a recent study made by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) which showed that agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) are more able to purchase home appliances such as TV sets and refrigerators compared to non-ARBs.

According to Dr. Celia Reyes, author of "Impact of Agrarian Reform on Poverty," a growing number of ARBs have been buying TV sets and refrigerators in the past 10 years because they were "inclined toward higher income and lower poverty incidence" than ordinary farmers.

"Ownership of assets is an indicator of the household’s economic well-being," she said. "In particular, certain assets are highly correlated with poverty status."

She cited another study conducted in 1998 showing that ownership of refrigerators was "very strongly correlated with being non-poor."

Based on the study, the proportion of ARB families who owned TV sets in 1990 was 27.2 percent higher than non-ARB families.

Ten years later, the PIDS study said there were 53.7 percent of ARBs who owned TV sets, almost twice the number in 1990. On the other hand, only 49.4 percent of non-ARBs had TV sets in 2000.

Reyes noted that ARBs earn 23 percent higher than ordinary farmers who have not been reached by the agrarian reform program.

According to the PIDS study, the average household income in 1990 was P49,594 for ARBs, and P39,142 for non-ARBs. In 2000, the average income of ARBs and non-ARBs was P98,653 and P76,156, respectively.

The study added that real per capita incomes of ARBs also increased by 12.2 percent between 1990 and 2000.