View source for Farmers in Adversity: Communication Patterns and Trends among Selected Filipino Farmers in Facing the Challenges of Climate Change to Rice Farming

'''ABSTRACT'''

''Layaoen, M.G. (2013). Farmers in Adversity: Communication Patterns and Trends among Selected Filipino Farmers in facing the Challenges of Climate Change to Rice Farming, Unpublished Masters Thesis. University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.
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The study explores farmer’s knowledge, understanding, and coping mechanisms on climate change and how these shape the communication patterns and trends in a farming community.

This takes cognizance of the various studies conducted in the past on farmers’ knowledge sharing and learning behavior, thus, it focuses instead on farmers’ communicative behavior during climate change. It used the principles of the Coordinated Management of Meaning, Dependency Theory, and Filipino Communicative Behavior to explain the farmers’ use of climate change information and interpretation in devising/improving farming practices to mitigate and adapt to its effects to rice farming. It also explores farmers’ dependency on their social world (government, co-farmers, media, farmer-group) to satisfy climate change needs. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to generate the findings.

Results indicated that farmers weave a communication system within their social world to achieve specific needs in times of adversities. Their description of climate change as extreme heat or typhoon threatening rice farming productivity and their corresponding actions to it testify that their understanding of the phenomenon is based on their past experiences as farming stories evolve. However, farmers seek for help from the social world when confronted with adversities they cannot handle, like the extremities of climate change.

The study’s topic in itself is a focal national interest as the country celebrates the National Year of Rice in 2013. Aside from being relevant to various disciplines related to rice research/extension and development communication, findings will serve as a baseline data in devising the communication plan of the Philippine Rice Research Institute’s Climate Change Center.