Help Wanted!
Above is part of the cover of the January-June 2020 issue of PhilRice Magasin, all 20 pages devoted to cooperatives. The issue is advanced, the cause is delayed.
Naturally, the authors talk enthusiastically about their contents. Cristina A Frediles, Editor. Reuel M Maramara, Julianne A Suarez, Zenny C Awing, Anna Marie F Bautista, Allan C Biwang Jr, and Donna Cris P Corpuz. Nonetheless, in the very first article, Ms Cristina says that as of December 2019, we have only 355 registered rice coops with 167,274 member-farmers out of 2 million farmers. That’s 8.36% coop to non-coop farmers. That tells us that cooperativism is barely alive in the Philippines! Personally, I know so-called coops and farmer associations that are dictatorships of their chairs and presidents!
I can appreciate the enthusiasm of those 7 ladies and gentlemen authors of PhilRice in writing about cooperatives in the Philippines – I hope they are trying to convince more people to form cooperatives or become new members of old ones. They should be thinking of Super Coops:
Super Coops, those that empower their members technically,
the ones that enrich their members legally & sustainably!
the ones that enrich their members legally & sustainably!
I have been a member of the Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative, NMPC, of Asingan, Pangasinan, for years, quite a few of those as a board member – so I know what is going on. As with probably a great many of the coops in the Philippines, poor farmer-members have not prospered enough to earn incomes that sustain good lives above the poverty line.
Compare now. PH Suffer Coops are:
(1) Bad entrepreneurs.
They ignore the high cost of production of rice in the Philippines:P12/kilo compared to Vietnam where the cost is only P6/kilo!
They ignore the high cost of production of rice in the Philippines:
(2) Bad transplanters.
They allow their farmer-members to wait for 1 month or longer before they transplant the seedlings. By that time, the roots are well-grown and break when handled from seedbed to field, delaying the growth cycle. Bad botanists!
They allow their farmer-members to wait for 1 month or longer before they transplant the seedlings. By that time, the roots are well-grown and break when handled from seedbed to field, delaying the growth cycle. Bad botanists!
(3) Bad managers.
They do not prepare for the needs of their farmer-members in terms of inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, planters and transplanters, harvesters, dryers, haulers – all in one place that all the members can ask for pertinent services at a moment’s notice.
They do not prepare for the needs of their farmer-members in terms of inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, planters and transplanters, harvesters, dryers, haulers – all in one place that all the members can ask for pertinent services at a moment’s notice.
(4) Bad observers.
They probably are not observing. For instance: Why is it that coops do not encourage their member-farmers to plant rice using the System of Rice Intensification, SRI, that has been shown worldwide to be less costly, more productive and therefore more rewarding? It is not in the nature of Filipino farmers to try new things. More coop leaders should “sell” SRI to their members.
They probably are not observing. For instance: Why is it that coops do not encourage their member-farmers to plant rice using the System of Rice Intensification, SRI, that has been shown worldwide to be less costly, more productive and therefore more rewarding? It is not in the nature of Filipino farmers to try new things. More coop leaders should “sell” SRI to their members.
(5) Bad sellers.
Of course the farm supply owners manipulate their prices at planting time, and middlemen manipulate their price of rice at harvest time.
Of course the farm supply owners manipulate their prices at planting time, and middlemen manipulate their price of rice at harvest time.
Solution: The Super Coop as Super Manager.
Let us ask the Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie for the Department of Agriculture to willingly provide financial, technical & mechanical assistances for farmers to build their Super Coops and enjoy Super Incomes!@517
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