BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Department of Agriculture (DA-CAR) continues to encourage consolidation and clustering of farmers cooperatives and associations (FCAs) in the region that would enable more farmers, fishers, and agripreneurs to produce and earn more from their toil, and attain economies of scale.
In the 4th Quarter meeting of the Regional Development Council (RDC) Cordillera held at the DA-CAR, Regional Executive Director Atty. Jennilyn Dawayan reiterated the department’s measure to review the capabilities of the 948 organizations in the region to determine who among them may progress to become SMEs (Small-Medium Enterprise) or to progress to a higher position.
“What the DA is doing now is to consolidate our FCAs, we encourage them to become clusters. The PMED (Planning, Evaluation, and Monitoring Division) of DA-CAR who acts as the secretariat has disaggregated these organizations following a review of the asset capabilities and organizational capacity of each FCAs, the department has analyzed who among them should be provided with support through various intervention of the DA,” Dawayan said.
The Farm and Fisheries Clustering and Consolidation (F2C2) Program was established under Administrative Order No. 27, Series of 2020, signed on August 8, 2020. It aims to support and promote clustering and consolidation in the Banner Programs as a strategy to enhance the production and income of farmers and fisherfolk.
Under the F2C2 program, An improvement in the bargaining and market power of primary farm and fishery producers is seen; Establishing better access to sources of credit, financing, and investment including better access to domestic and export markets; Ensure greater value and wider utilization of agri-aqua technologies, farm mechanization, logistics and transport support, and postharvest facilities; And encourage active ‘Big Brother-Small Brother Partnerships’, and joint ventures among farmer cooperatives and associations.
“Based on our data after disaggregating the CSOs, it showed that more than half of the accredited organizations were found out to have registrations with Department of Labor and Employment. There are FCAs having small capitalization having no significant activity as compared to bigger organizations registered with the DA, with other organizations registered with Securities and Exchange Commission, among others, which is why we are looking for possible collaboration, aside from looking at how many times an individual is a member of many associations,” the Regional Executive Director stated.
Dawayan added that another thrust of the DA is the creation of an Agriculture Cooperative and Enterprise Development division that will focus on enhancing the capabilities of civil society organizations (CSOs), aside from currently looking at the term cooperative that might disregard the CSOs SEC registration, DOLE registration and others. DA-CAR however views the DOLE registration as a spin for better cooperation with the said department. By JTLlanes
