Farm Productions and Rural Landscapes

Farm landscapes in the Philippines are dominated by rice and coconuts in most provinces. In a country of generally small farm holdings, rice, the staple food, is cultivated across the archipelago, even if corn plays a bigger role in the southern part of the country. In the mountains of northern Luzon, the Ifugao tribe have developed over several centuries a remarkable landscape of rice terraces on steep slopes, but most of the rice is grown in the plains of Central Luzon around Manila. The coconut ``tree of life'', most abundant in Quezon and Bicol, is used in many different ways, from food to construction materials. Bananas and pineapple are the leading export productions, mostly grown on large plantations in Mindanao. Beef production is small, but hog raising, done in small farm pig houses, provides most of the meat consumed in the country. A trend is underway towards the development of large hog raising facilities, a trend also observed in the poultry business. The carabao, or Philippine water buffalo, is used as a working animal both in the rice fields and for pulling carts.