Land Conversion and Industrialization and its Impact on Crop Production

Abstract— Agriculture, specifically crop production, is a crucial driver of prosperity in the Philippines, contributing to economic growth, employing 36% of the workforce, and ensuring food security. Palay is Central Luzon's most widely grown crop, making it the country's largest producer. Crops like palay do not grow on their own; a variety of factors, such as arable land availability, urbanization, and agricultural mechanization influences them. Therefore, this study examines the effect of selected agricultural input on palay production in Central Luzon from 1970 to 2019, with CobbDouglas production function as its basis. The adopted methodology is the unit root test by the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) approach, a test for long-run relationship (Johansen cointegration), and the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) multiple regression method. The study would like to know how the chosen input will affect the output of palay production in the area. The study indicates that the variables are stationary. Land use conversion and Agricultural mechanization show that it significantly affects palay production in the region. Considering that the area is well suited for crop production, the governing bodies should urgently establish and impose policies that cultivate agricultural development to support the country's food security and economic prosperity.