Cagayan Valley
Cagayan River basin where rice and corn agriculture feeds national markets from Philippines' largest watershed amid Sierra Madre forest pressures.
Cagayan Valley extends along the Cagayan River in northeastern Luzon—the Philippines' largest river basin supporting rice and corn production that feeds national markets. The region's agricultural character contrasts with industrial CALABARZON or service-oriented Metro Manila, representing the rural economy that still employs substantial Filipino workforce share.
Rice production dominates the valley floor, with irrigation infrastructure enabling multiple cropping seasons that maximize annual output. Corn supplements rice as both food and feed crop. The agricultural economy creates seasonal employment patterns that differ from urban wage labor: planting and harvest intensive, between-season sparse.
Isabela Province hosts tobacco cultivation that Ilocos also produces, creating competition for contract farmers supplying cigarette manufacturers. The crop's labor intensity provides employment that mechanized agriculture would eliminate, though health concerns about tobacco create long-term demand uncertainty.
The Sierra Madre mountain range flanking the valley contains remaining primary forest that protected area designation attempts to preserve. Logging, whether legal or illegal, continues reducing forest cover that ecosystem services require. By 2026, expect continued agricultural commodity production, infrastructure improvements reducing the region's relative isolation, and environmental pressures on remaining forest intensifying as population grows.