Issues and problems confronting the Filipino peasants

1. long history of landlessness
2. rampant land-use conversion
   (from agricultural to residential, leisure or industrial complex)
3. bogus land reform program of the government
4. elitist justice system
5. rampant landgrabbing
6. high cost of farm inputs
7. low technology
8. poor infrastructure (farm-to-market road,
   irrigation system, post-harvest facilities)
9. influx of GMOs
10. influx of transnational corporate interest (pesticide, fertilizer)
11. contract growing, monocropping imposed by TNCs
    (reducing the country to a 'banana republic')
12. unfair trade regime
13. subsidies accorded by the foreign
    governments to their local farmers
14. rampant dumping (at a cheaper price due to #10)
15. insufficient or lack of access to credit facilities
16. usury (loansharks or 5/6)
17. warlordism, militarization in the countryside
18. depletion of soil nutrient (results in low productivity)
19. climate change
20. bureaucrat capitalism (deeply entrenched economic interest
    of the landowning elites in policymaking)
21. impending passage of the farmland as loan collateral bill
22. low budget allocation to agricultural development
23. culture of defeat (hopelessness, disempowerment)
24. feudal culture (relasyong amo-alalay)
25. poverty and underdevelopment