WB: Cooperatives key to vibrant farming

STRONG producer groups are essential for a thriving farming sector in the Philippines, according to a new World Bank (WB) report.

The WB said in a statement on Friday that its report found that clustering and organizing small farmers into cooperatives and various types of producers’ organizations, as well as forging partnerships with agribusiness firms, can help raise their incomes and, as a result, spur socioeconomic transformation.

The report, which was released in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture (DA), revealed that there are many lessons to be learned for clustering and consolidation of activities on-farm and along the value chain to succeed and transform the agricultural sector.

The Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), which is now being executed by the Agriculture department, is one significant example of this method, it underscored. The WB said PRDP organizes farmers and fisherfolk into firms that take a businessoriented approach to farming and fishing, with infrastructure including farm-to-market roads, irrigation, postharvest facilities and cold storage to help them succeed. “To succeed, efforts at clustering and consolidation need to be voluntary, built on trust and confidence, and collaborative relationships among stakeholders,” Ndiame Diop, WB country director for Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, was quoted as saying.

The WB said Philippine agriculture is dominated by small farmers and fisherfolk who work independently, generally utilizing traditional farming methods and receiving modest wages. Each year, the average farmer earns P100,000, well below the poverty line. It went on to say the average farm size has decreased from 3 hectares (ha) per family per holding in the 1980s to barely 0.9 ha per family per holding in 2012. The World Bank said these smaller farms are often divided into more fragmented sections. Moreover, half of the country’s farms (57 percent) are 1 ha or smaller, 32 percent are 1 to 3 ha; 9 percent are 3 to 7 ha; and only 2 percent are 7 ha or greater.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar has emphasized how modern technology can make farming more effective and profitable for farmers and their agribusiness partners through schemes such as block farming, trust farming and contract farming. Linking agriculture to the domestic and global manufacturing sectors, as well as accessing markets, becomes easier with higher and better-quality production. “Finding opportunities for clustering and consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms as well as partnerships with agribusiness enterprises is part of the ‘new thinking’ of the Department of Agriculture,” he was quoted as saying.