In the immediate post-World War II period, observers forecast a bright future for the Philippines. In several ways, the Philippines was indeed better positioned than neighbouring Southeast Asian countries. The country was spared massive Cold War devastations and enjoyed agricultural successes in the 1960s and 1970s. The Green Revolution in rice was initiated at the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, Laguna in the mid-1960s with the introduction of genetically engineered high-yielding varieties, most notably the IR8 variety. The Philippines became an international knowledge centre for the agricultural sciences. Rice production surged and the country managed to achieve self-sufficiency in the late 1970s (Ulack 2000: p. 422). In addition, the plantation economy thrived. The export value of raw sugarcane, the traditional colonial plantation crop, increased from USD 137 million in 1965 to its peak level of USD 624 million in 1980 (Doner 2009: p. 143). As Balisacan and Hill (2003: p.1) noted: “By the mid-1960s there was still little evidence that things were to go seriously wrong. Indeed, the country was largely free of the major problems then besetting Southeast Asia”.

In the 1980s however, economic development in various sectors, including those of agriculture and fisheries, started to lose vibrancy. Meanwhile, other Southeast Asian countries in the 1990s, such as Thailand, Indonesia, and especially Vietnam were enjoying a period of impressive agricultural performance, livelihood improvements for smallholders, and overall rural poverty reduction.