Philippines: Lack of networking still a concern, survey says

Mindanao Times, 28 February 2007

By Rizalene P. Acac  

THE lack of organization among small-scale vegetable farmers is the primary concern of the vegetable industry based on the nationwide consultation undertaken by the Regoverning Markets Program (RMP) that ended Monday.

Larry Digal, the program's coordinator in South East Asia, said the stakeholders pinpointed the disjointed initiative of farmers in the vegetable-planting areas in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao that also hinders them in accessing credits. With this, the program is proposing that the vegetable industry replicate the practice of Northern Mindanao vegetable group that met success in linking the small farmers to the market, he said.

The practice also known as "clustering" could bring about great benefits to the farmers as volume of vegetables is pooled together and its quantity is improved due to an established system.

Digal said the scheme of the northern Mindanao growers was to ride on with big independent farmers to supply a large supermarket. Among the products was carrot, which passed into a more sophisticated washing and packaging process. Digal said the process increased the investment of the growers but it also increased its value in the market. The increase in the sophistication was pegged at 11 percent but the farmers gained an increase of 15 percent in net income. "This is a clear evidence of clustering. It is about discipline and technology," he said.

Digal said the mechanism was presented among the stakeholders in Baguio (attended by North Luzon growers), Manila (attended by South Luzon growers), Cebu (Visayas growers) and the last leg in Davao (Mindanao growers). The participants reached to 400 including farmers and other stakeholders.

Digal said the output of the consultations would be sent within this week to the Office of the President. It would also be submitted to the 5th National Vegetable Congress on March 7-8, 2007 in Tagaytay City which will be one of the baseline data to be used in creating a policies and resolutions for the industry. RMP, on the other hand, is a program of various groups including the UK Department for International Development, CordAid, International Development Research Centre, Canadian International Development Aid and the US Agency for International Development.

The program aims to "provide strategic advice and guidance to the public sector, agri-food chain actors, civil society organizations including economic organizations of producers, and development agencies on approaches that can anticipate and manage the impacts of the dynamic changes in the local and regional markets." It is present in China, Central and Eastern Europe, East Mediterranean and Middle East, North and West Africa, South East Asia, Latin America, South Asia, East Africa and Southern Africa.