The objective of this study was to determine the factors affecting the acceptability of the Certificate of Stewardship Contract (CSC) as a Land Tenurial System (LTS) among Ayangan Ifugao farmer-recipients and determine its relationship to the demographic characteristics of the respondents such as: age, sex, marital status, family size, educational attainment, place of origin, income, membership in organization, and size of land under the Certificate of Stewardship Contract; psychological variables such as: attitude towards the implementors, perceptions, aspirations; and socio-cultural variables such as customs and traditions as well as, ancestral beliefs. Acceptability of the Certificate of Stewardship Contract as a Land Tenurial System was the dependent variable. The acceptability of the program was of two categories: acceptability of the 50-year program and acceptability of responsibilities by the farmer- recipients as stipulated in the contract.

Data used in the study were obtained from 65 out of 78 Ayangan farmer-recipients of the program through an Interview schedule translated into the Ayangan dialect.

Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages, means, ranges and standard deviations were used in the study. Multiple Regression Analysis was used to determine the relationship between the dependent and independent variables.

The age of the recipients ranged from 17 to 73 years with mean of 41.86 years and standard deviation of 11.13 years. Thirty eight of the respondents were males accounting for fifty eight percent while twenty seven (27) accounted for the female group. Fifty of the recipients of the project were married while fifteen were single. Typical of mountain inhabitants, twenty seven of the respondents had low educational attainment accounting for 42%. This is closely followed by the group with medium educational attainment numbering twenty four; while fourteen had high educational attainment. Fifty three of the respondents were indigenous residents of the locality where the project were situated. Only twelve were migrants from nearby towns of Ifugao.

Thirty five of the farmer-beneficiaries have low income (P10,000 and below per annum) while thirty were classified under high income earner (P10,001 and above) per annum. The findings of this study showed that the annual income ranged from P1000 to P24,000 and the computed average income was P842.21/month. belong to any existing active members of Thirty seven of the respondents did not organization while twenty eight were organization such as cooperatives operating in the area. Forty of the respondents belong to the small-land holding group who owned areas smaller than 2.42 hectares. The remaining twenty five of the recipients owned 2.43 hectares or more of land under the Certificate of Stewardship Contract.

The respondents' degree of acceptability of the 50-year arrangement is between moderate and highly acceptable levels. This is manifested by the mean acceptability rating of 3.17. The standard deviation was 1.21 which indicates a relatively wide disparity on the respondent's attitude towards the land tenurial arrangement.

None among the nine demographic variables significantly correlated with the degree of acceptability of the 50-year land tenurial arrangement. Only the age of the respondents showed significant correlation with the acceptability of the 50-year tenurial arrangement.

The perception and aspiration of the respondents highly correlated with the acceptability of the 50-year land tenure arrangement while the attitude of the recipients did not. All the variables were found to have positive effect on the acceptability of the 50-year land tenure arrangement.

The customs and traditions as well as the ancestral beliefs of the respondent's were not correlated with the acceptability of the 50-year land tenure arrangement, whether taken together (multiple) or individually (simple). Both, however, had positive effects on the degree of acceptability.

Fifteen of the sixty five respondents representing 23.08% were found to have high acceptability of their responsibilities as beneficiaries of the Certificate of Stewardship Contract, twenty five representing 38.46% moderately accepted, twelve representing 18.46% fairly accepted and thirteen representing 20% have not accepted. As a whole, the respondents degree of acceptability of their responsibility is somewhere between fairly and moderately acceptable. This is manifested by the mean acceptable rating of 2.65.

Using Multiple regression the nine demographic on variables, none came out to be significantly correlated with the acceptability of the responsibility of the recipients as stipulated in the Certificate of Stewardship Contract.

The perception of the recipients on the project was correlated with their acceptability of their responsibility as beneficiaries of the Certificate of Stewardship Contract.
Their attitudes towards the project and perceptions have no relationship with the acceptability of their responsibility.

Considering the two socio-cultural variables together, the customs and traditions of the recipients were found to be significantly correlated with the acceptability of their responsibility. Furthermore, these had a positive effect on the level of acceptability while ancestral belief had negative effect.

Thesis (Master of Science in Rural Development)

Includes appendices and bibliographical references