In a lush field nestled in the heart of Capiz province on Panay island, Philippines, 37-year-old Fidel Fundal stands under the shade of a coconut tree and gazes at his 1.5 hectare field of yellow corn. This season, he will be harvesting about nine tons of yellow corn, earning a gross profit of about Php 157,500. In previous years, he would earn close to nothing.
Fidel has been working as a farmer in the small town of Candelaria in Capiz province for 10 years and understands the challenges that farmers in the region face.
“My corn farm is quite far from the main road, and it’s difficult to find farm workers for planting and harvesting,” he said. “We also don’t have a drying facility, which means that the corn will easily rot in the rainy season.”
These challenges, combined with crippling debt from loan sharks and crop loss during typhoons and droughts, have forced many in the region to stop farming.
But thanks to USAID and its partners Agriterra Philippines and Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative, these circumstances are changing. Last year, Fidel joined a USAID-supported program where he learned to work with other farmers to access better market prices and services through an approach called agro-enterprise clustering. By using this approach, Fidel and other farmers worked into clusters and were able to consolidate their harvests. As a result, the farmers were able to strengthen their bargaining power to sell their crops at better prices, and access affordable financing and other services such as crop insurance. A total of 130 farmers from Capiz, Mindoro, and Quezon joined the program.
“They provided us low-interest loans and a guaranteed price for our yellow corn, which was higher than the market price,” said Fidel. “They also helped us insure our crops to protect our income should there be a typhoon or drought.”
With support from USAID, Agriterra also trained Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative staff on member selection techniques and other business development services to better serve the farm clusters.
“Through USAID and Agriterra’s agro-enterprise clustering approach training, we realized we need to address issues in the corn business value chain such as proper warehousing, logistics support, and efficient use of resources for more effective program implementation,” said Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative Regional Manager for the Visayas Vivian Allanares.
After the training, the cooperative’s Capiz branch mobilized development facilitators, sales representatives, and branch coordinators to help farmers like Fidel form clusters, train them in more effective farming and business models, improve organizational governance, and facilitate better market opportunities. Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative also hired a truck that can pick-up the harvest from various corn farms and safely transport it to the Capiz Feedmill Plant. In addition, the cooperative helped facilitate a partnership between clusters and the Department of Agriculture for a drying facility.
“Our goal is to organize and empower farmers by providing them knowledge and skills in corn farming,” said Vivian. “We want to engage them with new ideas and methods so that their business will be more lucrative. Ultimately, we want to increase the corn production in our area, expand our membership, and build partnerships with nearby municipalities that are champions in corn production.”
Thanks to USAID and Agriterra’s partnership, the Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative has helped organize ten clusters of farmers in Capiz, and purchased about Php 12 million worth of yellow corn from these clusters at a guaranteed price. In addition to selling their corn at better prices, Fidel and other farmers in the region have also accessed about Php 7 million in financing for essential materials such as seeds, fertilizer, machinery, and payment for farm labor, allowing them to produce over 700,000 kilos of yellow corn.
Because of the program’s success in expanding rural livelihood opportunities and increasing farmers’ incomes, the cooperative plans on expanding agro-enterprise clustering to other sites, and applying the strategy to livestock and other crops such as rice.
“The agro-enterprise clustering program was instrumental in helping us organize ourselves,” said Fidel. “Because of this program and the support of its partners, we have been able to overcome many of the challenges we have faced for decades.”
USAID