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International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Studies (IJEASS)
ISSN 2807-1778(Online)| 2807-1921 (Print)
Volume 1 Number 1 (2021): 33-43

Explore Challenges of Piňa Growers in the Province of Aklan

Arlene B. De La Cruz1
1 School of Arts and Sciences, Aklan State University, Philippines

Abstract
This study described the challenges experienced by piña growers in the province of Aklan in areas
where piña growing, and production activities were declining covering the from 2003 to present.
Specifically, this study explored the problems encountered by the piña growers in piña fiber
production, their views on the problems encountered and their coping strategies. The study used
qualitative research design where phenomenology was used as research method. Data analysis was
done using the process developed by Colaizzi’s (1978) as cited by Shosha (2012) to provide
assistance in extracting, organizing, and analyzing to explore and understand the challenges
encountered by the piña growers. Findings revealed that the piña growers encountered problems
such as difficulty in the maintenance and cultivation, longer gestation period, no sustained market
and interference of middleman, lack of planting material, natural calamities, infestation, shifting to
another variety and lack of support. These resulted to decreased motivation, financial instability, and
feeling of neglect but still have the contentment. It is further recommended that information
dissemination should be made among concerned agencies such as the Local Government Units
(LGUs), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and Department of Agriculture (DA) for
appropriate interventions in terms of market price of piña leaves, sustained market demands for piña
leaves, and empowered piña growers, leaves processors, knotters and weavers through the
formation of a cooperative. Future policies to address the dwindling piña growing activities and piña
fiber production may use the proposed theoretical framework for relevant action.
Keywords: piña growers, fiber industry

This is an open access article under the CC–BY-NC license.

INTRODUCTION
Aklan is an agricultural province best known as the “Center of Piña Weaving in the Country” a title
earned way back the Spanish era. Piña or the Spanish Red (SR) pineapple variety is one of the crops
planted by farmers famous for its lustrous fiber usually obtained its leaves through hand scraping.
The fiber possesses qualities having a fine texture with length usually reaches 0.60m, high moisture
and dye holding capacity, excellent whiteness, brilliance, salt resistant and breaking strength
(Medina and Garcia, 2005) processed by washing, drying, knotting and weaving into a fine piña
cloth.
The popularity of Piña cloth is undeniable as it continuously conquers the local and
international fashion scene due to its unique qualities and texture. The annual average production
of bastos fiber from 2003 to 2012 was recorded at 1.859 T. Unfortunately, the production rate has
dwindled at an average rate of 7.2 percent; while the average production of liniuan was recorded
at 0.359 T per annum also dropped at an average rate of 5.0 percent annually. This predicament
has affected the supply of piña cloth in Aklan noted to have decreased in recent years with the
diminishing piña fiber and cloth productions (Yabut, 1991).
According to the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (2013), the large-scale
production of pure piña cloth from the year 2003 to 2012 presented a negative accomplishment.
The Pineapple Commodity Profile (PCP) showed that the supply of planting materials and piña
leaves are not enough resulting to inadequate fiber supply and shortage of capital necessary for the

Corresponding author
Arlene B. De La Cruz, [email protected]
DOI: 10.31098/ijeass.v1i1.555 Research Synergy Foundation
 International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Studies (IJEASS), Vol. 1(1), 33-43
Explore Challenges of Piňa Growers in the Province of Aklan
Arlene B. De La Cruz

establishment of large-scale piña growing for fiber production. The decrease in piña fiber
production from the SR pineapple is a problem that requires immediate attention from concerned
agencies overseeing the fiber production in the province.
This prompted the researcher to explore the challenges confronting piña SR growers in the
province where SR pineapple growing has severely decline. It looks to document the problems
encountered by participants in the production of piña SR pineapple, their personal views, and their
coping strategies in facing the challenges. Based on the phenomenon, the researcher addressing
three questions designed to explore on the challenges, views and coping strategies experienced by
piña growers that would generate themes and possible substantive theory on the formulation of
policies by concerned stakeholders to address the dwindling supply of piña fiber for piña cloth
production:
1. What challenges did the participants encountered in piña production?
2. How do they view these challenges?
3. How did they cope with these challenges?

RESEARCH METHOD
The study is qualitative using phenomenology as research method as study requires
contextualization various reactions to, or perception of, particular phenomenon. According to
Creswell (1994), the idea of seeking understanding about this phenomenon is best supported by a
constructivist, interpretive, and inductive perspective aligned with the post positivist paradigm.
The phenomenological Approach Framework was used in this study to describe the concept of the
phenomenon of dwindling piña fiber production. The research environments were the piña
growing localities in the province of Aklan that had decreased their growing and production
activities.
The participants in this study were selected based on the following criteria: 1) must be a
resident of piña growing locality in the province of Aklan; 2) involved or engaged in growing piña
for at least 10 years; 3) came from localities in Aklan province with notable decline in the growing
and production activities of piña (SR). Number of participants was determined based on the “depth
of strategies” rather than “sampling strategies.” In other words, the study relied more on the
saturation of data (Holloway and Wheeler, 2002; cited in Driessnack, Sousa & Mendes, 2007).
Non-probability sampling, specifically criterion sampling was utilized in the identification
of informants. The researcher was the main instrument and carried out the data
gathering/collection through direct one-on-one interview using microcassette recorder. Follow-up
questions were made relevant to the questions in the interview guide until the challenges they
encountered in piña growing, their views of these challenges and coping to these challenges were
captured.
In analyzing the data, the researcher utilized the process developed by Colaizzi’s (1978) in
extracting, organizing, and analyzing to explore and understand the challenges encountered by the
piña growers. The narrative was transcribed into verbatim in Aklanon dialect, then translated to
English, summarized and organized into coherent story using the statement of the purpose as guide.
Each statement was read several times to gain sense of the whole transcript. All the thoughts,
feelings, and ideas experience by the researcher due to her earlier exposure to piña growing was
added to the bracketing diary. This helped explore the phenomenon as experienced by the
informants themselves.

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Explore Challenges of Piňa Growers in the Province of Aklan
Arlene B. De La Cruz

The significant statements and phrases pertaining to body image changes and coping
strategies were extracted from each transcript, written in separate sheets and coded in its
corresponding “transcript, page and line numbers”. The significant statements were extracted from
these transcripts. Thirty-eight significant statements were extracted out of the 10 transcripts.
Meanings were formulated from the significant statement. Each underlying meaning were coded in
one category as they reflect an exhaustive description. The whole statement and their meanings
were checked by the researcher to ensure the consistency and accuracy of meanings.
The meanings were categorized into clusters of themes and emergent themes were
determined, and the final thematic map was derived. The researcher validated the study by sending
the study results to the informants and all participants showed their satisfaction toward the results
which entirely reflect their feelings and experiences.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Challenges Encountered by the Piña Growers

1. Difficulty in the Maintenance and Cultivation

The spines found on the leaves of the SR pineapple makes its maintenance a daunting task
among SR piña growers. Normally, this variety of pineapple is often neglected where no
administrations of appropriate cultural practices are employed. Most of them just grow
their piña SR on their backyard instead of growing in a bigger plantation area. They
considered that the amount of work involved in transferring the plants to a bigger
plantation is expensive and laborious. Due to this, most growers preferred to establish
calamansi and rambutan orchards, and banana plantation, specifically the arnibal or the
señorita variety.
Elio, piña grower, plants Hawaiian pineapple rather than the SR variety. His
plantation was also planted with cassava, banana (arnibal variety) in between. Hawaiian
pineapple was ideal for intercropping while SR pineapple was not ideal due to its spiny
leaves which makes it difficult to manage during cultivation until harvesting and
processing. Ronnie, another piña grower did the scraping of the piña leaves before, but it
was difficult for him to do this works so he just sells the leaves to scrapers but not in regular
basis. Some of his produced leaves were just left in the field. So, he planted the Hawaiian
pineapple instead only to sell the fruits and harvested the leaves for processing. With the
Hawaiian variety he had better income compared to SR pineapple.

"Ro bisaya nga piña hay malisod itanum nga may kaibahang ibang tanum ay masiit. Manina
kat-ing sa siit kon magturag ka ag mag ani ku ibang tanum". (It is difficult to grow piña by
intercropping due to its spine. The spine is painful once you are stuck by it during
harvesting of other crops.)

Emily’s father used to grow piña in their backyard. She knew how to process the
leaves into fiber and had woven the fiber into piña cloth. According to Emily, “Just plant
piña and it would grow”. They plant piña in the backyard and sold the leaves to scrapers
for processing; they bought the fiber for knotting and then weave this to piña cloth and sold.

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Explore Challenges of Piňa Growers in the Province of Aklan
Arlene B. De La Cruz

"Dugang pa maabu magsaha ro bisaya nga piña. Ngani ga gutok, maikit ro mga tanum ag
mabudlay dayon mag tatap ag mag ani it tanum". (In addition, SR pineapple have plenty of
suckers. It tends to be overcrowded and it is difficult to cultivate and harvest other crops
planted).

She added it was painful to the skin once stuck by the spine of piña leaves. The spine was
needlelike. It caused wounds on the skin. Rose, another piña grower was reluctant to grow
more of SR pineapple due to its spiny leaves.

"Masiit ro bisaya nga piña. Nasakitan ako magbu-oe it dahon kon masiit ako. Gina pabay-an
ko lang sa scraper mag buoe it dahon. Mayad man kon anda ako nga bayaran it kumporme.
Kon amat gina pana-o ko lang". (SR pineapple is spiny. It hurts when I got pierced by its
spine. I just allow the scrapers to harvest the leaves and just accept whatever amount they
still give. Sometimes I just give it for free.)

Another piña grower, Theresa who was 72 years old now started with her parents when
she was still young. They grow piña, the SR pineapple variety ever since. Until now, they
were into piña growing but not only SR pineapple variety that they were planting but also
the Hawaiian pineapple variety to sell the fruits.

2. Longer Gestation Period

Another reason why Girlie planted few piña, was due to its gestation period. It would take
one and a half years to harvest the fruits and the leaves. It took her 18 months to harvest
the leaves of piña. While root crops and other vegetables would not take that long period
of time to harvest.

"Kabuhay mapuslan do piña. Kon magtanum ako it guyam-ot ag tinoean-on hay madali
mapuslan". (It takes a long period before I can harvest piña. Whereas, growing root crops
and vegetables takes a short period of time.)

3. No Sustained Market and Interference of Middlemen

There were some piña growers who continued their piña growing activity, but the issue
was the marketing of the leaves. There was no sustained market or buyer of the piña leaves
for processing. The pricing of leaves and fiber would usually depend on the scrappers,
middlemen and the SMEs.

"Owa kami it sigurado nga manogbakae sa among mga dahon nga pwedeng makigi". Owa
abi ga dungan ro pag ani it bunga it simuyaw ag ro pag ani it piña nga bunga ag dahon.
Ginpundo ko ro intercropping.” (We have no sure buyer of our piña leaves for processing.
The harvest season for the calamansi do not coincide with the season for SR pineapple or
piña leaves.

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Explore Challenges of Piňa Growers in the Province of Aklan
Arlene B. De La Cruz

4. Lack of Planting Materials

They lack planting material. They just rely on the suckers, slips and crown of their existing
grown piña plants in the backyard. They did not own a land, so the growing of piña was just
on a backyard scale. They were not given any assistance financially and technologically.

"Indi kami kapa-abu gid it bisaya nga piña nga tanum ay gasalig man lang kami sa saha
saliping ag korona it among tinanum nga dati para man itanum namon it uman. Owa ako it
bastante nga eogta dahil bukon kami it tag-ana it eogta".(We could not propagate well our
piña plants because we just rely on the suckers, slips and crown of existing piña plant as
source of our planting material again. I do not own a vast land that’s why we just planted
piña in backyard scale.)

5. Inevitable Natural Calamities

Key informants narrated their experiences with Typhoon Frank in 2008 where most of
their crops were damaged thick mud brought by heavy flooding in their area. Fields were
covered by muds which made them difficult to recover their crops eventually losing their
livelihood.

6. Infestation/Disease
One informant had been growing piña for so many years. He scraped the leaves and sold it
to knotters and middlemen. In the past years he had a plantation of SR pineapple. At
present, he had a 350 sq.m area planted to SR pineapple and a plantation of Hawaiian
variety. The rest of his farm is planted with calamansi, rambutan and banana. He was aware
that SR pineapple fiber was in demand and of good quality for piña weaving, and Aklan was
known for this product. The fiber of SR pineapple is of good quality. It has high breaking
strength. But as Ronnie keep on growing piña and scraped the leaves, he noticed that the
fibers were darker to off white, quite reddish and had black spots. He had no idea what
caused such problem.

"Manami ro linabag it bisaya nga piña. Matingting. Ro akon eang nga na notisyahan hay
mapuea-puea, bukon gid it maputi ag may maitom nga parte. Indi ko masayran kon ano ro
rason. Siguro makon hay sa sobra it gueang o may masakit ro piñatanum. Owa man abi kakon
it naka estorya kon ano ro dahilan ag kon ano ro mayad.” (The fiber of SR pineapple is of
good quality. It has high breaking strength. Lately, I have noticed the fiber was quite
reddish, not clear white and there are black spots in it. I do not know the reason. Maybe it
is due to its over maturity, or the piña plant had been attacked by a certain disease. Nobody
tells me what the reason is and what remedy will I do.)

7. Shifting to Another Variety

The growers shared their views on piña growing and shared that she started in the year by
2011 planting SR pineapple but engaged more on Hawaiian pineapple planting, banana and
other root crops. The SR pineapple was not productive compared to the Hawaiian variety.
Besides, the Hawaiian variety had bigger fruits which demand better price. They cannot
cultivate the SR pineapple because it was difficult to apply compost to fertilize the plant.
Because of this, they get rid of the SR pineapple and planted Hawaiian variety instead. Wena
and other growers disclosed that they pulled the SR pineapple and throw it away. It is spiny
and it is difficult to manage during the cultivation and harvesting. They just maintained the

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Explore Challenges of Piňa Growers in the Province of Aklan
Arlene B. De La Cruz

backyard scale of piña growing. Another grower, Girlie mentioned that her parents were
growing piña. They harvested the leaves and the fruits. The leaves were scraped into fiber
while the fruits were consumed and sometimes sold at a very low price. The introduction
of Hawaiian pineapple growing had influenced Girlie to shift in the planting of this variety.

"Mas maabu ro akong kita sa Hawaiian nga piña. Maikabaligya ko pa ro bunga ag may
gabakae man it dahon nga gina kigi nanda. Sa bisaya nga piña dahon lang rang mapuslan.
Bisan sayod ako nga ginapa kigi it Department of Agriculture hay piña nga bisaya, padayon
ako nga nagapa abu it Hawaiian nga piña.” (I had more income in growing Hawaiian
pineapple compared to SR pineapple. I can sell the fruits and there are scrapers and buyers
of leaves. In SR pineapple, I can only generate income from the leaves. Eventhough, I know
that the Department of Agriculture recommends the SR pineapple variety for scraping, I
still grow the Hawaiian variety.)

8. Lack of Support
The piña growers had experienced the feeling of neglect and unhappiness due to absence
of assistance from concerned agencies. Marketing of their products for a sustainable
venture was not explored. They just rely on somebody who came to buy the leaves or the
scraped fiber and that is the time they sell the fiber. Since growers started growing SR
pineapple, they had not received any technical assistance from any agency that takes care
of the commodity. Ronnie disclosed:

"Ga hueat eang kami kon hin-uno hibakae ro among linabag". ( We just wait until when our
fiber could be bought.)

Participants
1. Decreased Motivation
The backbreaking, painstaking and difficulty in growing followed by a lengthy waiting to
produce mature SR pineapple decreased the motivation of the piña growers to continue
the production. The long of period of gestation discouraged the growers to concentrate
on piña growing only. Also, the arduous intercropping with piña with other commodity
hindered the growers to flourish in their piña growing undertakings. The piña growers
are reluctant to grow piña because they find it difficult in the maintenance and cultivation
due to spiny leaves. They forbid the pricking sensation of the needle-like spines of the
piña leaves. The eagerness or intense to live through difficult times, the grower had
grown other plants/crops. They engaged on farming and planting calamansi, citrus and
rambutan and Hawaiian pineapple. Thus, informant A believed that diversified farming
is another answer to overcome poverty.

"I did not want to grow the SR pineapple because of its spines. It takes a long period to
utilize/ harvest piña only the leaves are useful. The income is not enough. It cannot
compensate the labor. I am not sure of my income in piña growing ".

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Explore Challenges of Piňa Growers in the Province of Aklan
Arlene B. De La Cruz

2. Financial Instability
The income was not wanting. There is insecurity in their livelihood in terms of economic
stability. They could not provide the needs of the family because there was no definite
buyer of the leaves. Worries for the unpromising livelihood to be fully relied as source of
income but still grateful for the extra income it provided. Another informant desires to
continue growing piña if economic or financial capital is available and there is captured
market supply chain management or value chain.

"Desire to continue growing piña..if economic or financial capital is available…captured

market.. supply chain management or value chain. We have to work hard to survive. Not
only piña could give us livelihood. There are plenty of plants we can grow and utilize. Could
not fully rely on piña growing…financially deprived!”

3. Displeasure and Feeling of Neglect and Unhappiness

Displeased on the issue that the middlemen or businessmen make money on piña but the
grower remains to suffer poverty. There was a sentiment of misfortune. Piña growers
remained financially deprived while the middlemen were potentially profitable.

"Owa kami it sigurado nga manogbakae sa among mga dahon nga pwedeng makigi". (We
have no sure buyer of our piña leaves for processing. We stopped the intercropping
scheme).

A piña grower explained that they did not hesitate to engage and flourish the piña
growing activity if they were given assistance like new technology that could help them
in the production and that it captured pricing that would compensate their labor. They
felt sense of neglect by the concerned agencies that caused their unhappiness.

"Nobody approached us growers to give any assistance such as financial and technology
assistance. We did not have enough budget to buy new planting material ".

4. Contentment
The piña growers felt that they were able to send their children to school due to
additional income out of part-time growing. They felt happy and contented of having
supplementary income. They were aware of the excellent and high quality of piña, the
strength of SR pineapple compared to other pineapple variety. They were optimistic for
a development in economic aspect for the grower. Since piña cloth demands a high price
in the market. Desire to push through the activity of growing piña if concerned agency
will support the supply chain management. The keen interest to continue and support
the piña growing because the informant clearly understands the need to support the
industry. The willingness to keep on growing piña and let it flourish if some concerned
agencies will extend assistance on technology and have a captured pricing. They were
optimistic for a development in economic aspect for the grower. Since piña cloth
demands a high price in the market.
However, hawaaian was a threat to a quality fiber because that is not recommended
by department of agriculture to be processed for piña cloth, it contributed to the
decreased growing of piña or S R pineapple specifically for piña fiber or piña cloth of good
quality.

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Explore Challenges of Piňa Growers in the Province of Aklan
Arlene B. De La Cruz

Coping Strategies of the Piña Growers

1. Problem-Focused Strategy
This coping strategy relied on using active ways to directly deal with the challenges of the
piña growers that caused the stress rather than must concentrate on the problem. Problem-
solving strategies are efforts to address what is necessary and actively do certain things to
lessen or eliminate stressful circumstances. Problem solving is a coping mechanism that
aims to determine the source of the problem and provide solutions. This coping mechanism
becomes helpful to the piña growers to provide their financial needs.

Modern Agricultural Technological Innovations

In agriculture, time and production were so important; they had to plant in time, harvest in
time and deliver to the market in time. They shifted to other farming resources available
such as diversified farming and engaged on other off-farm employment to augment their
needs such as fishing, construction work and other services.

Time Management
Farmer growers used time management planners. These planners were daily, weekly,
monthly schedules that help farmers allocate time to the most important priorities. They
did not procrastinate. They looked forward for upcoming events and deadlines. They tried
to stay in one task until it was done. They reviewed objectives, strategic and tactical plans.
Brainstorm that comes to mind that needs to be done first and record on the activity or
task. They maintained discipline. They worked smarter and harder.

2. Emotion-Focused Strategy
Emotion-focused coping strategies were used to handle feelings of distress on the
challenges of the piña growers rather than the actual problem situation. Emotion-focused
coping strategies involve efforts to regulate the emotional consequences of stressful or
potentially stressful events. These were the major coping mechanism applied by the
growers.

Wise Decision Making

It was the burning desire of the piña growers to seek for financial stability, so they resorted
to thinking of ways how to uplift their economic status. The positive coping strategies were
any actions the growers take to manage and reduce challenges, in a way that it was not
going to be harmful or detrimental in the long term. Growers who used positive strategies
were not only better able to tackle challenges and bounce back from tough times, but they
were also much happier.

Social support
Social support is the key. Trusting somebody one trust. It can be a relief to share their
thoughts with someone else, and it could be good to work through challenges with the help
of another person. The growers shared ideas, sentiments to their co-growers. They got
support from them. There was a strong bond among them. Asking for help, or finding

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Explore Challenges of Piňa Growers in the Province of Aklan
Arlene B. De La Cruz

emotional support from family members or friends, can be an effective way of maintaining
emotional health during a stressful period.

3. Optimism and Strong Determination

Optimism involves learning to think positively about the future even when things go wrong.
That’s not to say one should pretend that everything is fine when it isn’t. Instead, it’s about
looking objectively at a situation, making a conscious decision to focus on the good. It can
be hard to do, but if one practice, one likely to get better. In this vein, the growers looked at
each challenge they encountered as a learning experience.
The first question asked the participants of the challenges they encountered in piña
production. In this study, the participants were able to relate distinctive challenges:
difficulty in the maintenance and cultivation, longer gestation period, no sustained market
and interference of middlemen, lack of planting materials, inevitable natural calamities,
infestation/disease, shifting to another variety and lack of support.
The second question was intended to determine how the participants viewed the
challenges. The participants revealed the decreased motivation, financial instability,
displeasure, feeling of neglect and unhappiness and contentment.
The third question probed on how participants cope with the challenges
encountered. The participants dealt with the challenges through exerting efforts or actions
both behavioral and psychological approach: problem-focused strategy by employing
modern agricultural technological innovations and time management and, emotion-
focused strategy through wise decision making, social support, optimism and strong
determination.
After considering the possibility of merging similar themes together as well as
checking for the frequency of each recurring data extract, a total of three (3) themes were
identified. These were the following:

Challenges:
o Difficulty in the maintenance and cultivation
o Longer gestation period
o No sustained market and interference of middlemen
o Lack of planting materials
o Inevitable natural calamities
o Infestation / disease
o Shifting to another variety
o Lack of support by concerned agencies

Views:
o Decreased motivation
o Financial instability
o Displeasure and feeling of neglect
o Contentment

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Explore Challenges of Piňa Growers in the Province of Aklan
Arlene B. De La Cruz

Coping:
o Problem Focused Strategy
o Modern Agricultural Technological Innovations
o Time Management
o Emotion Focused Strategy
o Wise Decision Making
o Social support
o Optimism and Strong Determination

The piña growers were less motivated to grow piña due to the following reasons.
The difficult maintenance and cultivation of the crop due to spiny leaves; the long period of
gestation/maturity of piña resulting to lengthy waiting to produce mature leaves; the
economic aspect/opportunity is uncertain, and the laborious activity to grow piña in large
scale. Instead, the piña growers ventured on the growing of Hawaiian pineapple variety due
to its profitability.
The piña growers were still motivated to grow piña despite of the challenges
encountered in piña growing. These are the additional income they generate during their
part-time activity. Their awareness of the excellent and high-quality piña fiber and their
desire to push through on piña growing with the assistance of concerned agencies is still
alive in the hearts of the growers.
The piña growers’ plant/grow other commodities such as root crops, banana, citrus
fruit trees, rambutan and many others for livelihood management. The piña growers
engaged in other sustainable livelihood such as diversified farming, including off-farm
employment such as fishing, construction work and other services.

CONCLUSION
The timeless and regal Barong Tagalog, wedding dresses and other traditional Philippine formal
dress will not be a reality without the continued perseverance of the piña growers to continue the
activities in spite of the many challenges they encountered. The less motivation to grow piña due
to difficult growing activities, the long gestation/maturity of piña to produce mature leaves, the
uncertainty in the economic side, the laborious activity that hinders them to grow piña in large
scale, the preference to grow Hawaiian pineapple variety due to its profitability compared to SR
pineapple, did not stop them to grow piña but just decreased their piña growing activity.
The piña growers were still motivated to grow the commodity even in small scale due to
additional or supplemental income they can generate. The awareness of the excellent and high-
quality piña fiber and the desire to sustain piña growing to support one of Aklan’s pride; the piña
weaving industry that needs piña fiber as raw material derived from the piña leaves. The piña
growers firm determination and commitment to support their families pushed them to engage in
other activities such as diversified farming to overcome poverty.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The researcher would like to express her gratitude to the Aklan State University administration.

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Explore Challenges of Piňa Growers in the Province of Aklan
Arlene B. De La Cruz

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