On Facebook, I see the Department of Agriculture, DA, under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, is all over the Philippines offering all kinds of assistances to farmers.
In the DA press release (above), Manong Willie is saying, “Farm clustering needed to level up agri sector.” That makes much sense. In his “New Thinking For Agriculture,” one of the supporting 8 paradigms is #4, “Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms.”
Before this, I had no idea about "farm clustering" until late May when I read SEARCA Policy Paper 2020-2, “Agricultural Clusters Approach To Enhance Competitiveness Of Smallholder Farms In Southeast Asia” (see my 31 May 2020 essay “Beyond Survival Into Sustainability Of Farmers’ Rewards – Clustering In Agriculture 2020[1],” THiNK Journalism). So now Filipino farmers have a new lesson:
If you want to be helped big, first make yourself big!
In unity, there is a strength, farmers should also know.
Manong Willie is saying:
The Department of Agriculture (DA) will vigorously push for farm clustering and consolidation, being one of the key strategies to level up the Philippine agriculture sector. Cooperatives and associations must collectivize and come together to optimize the interventions and (assistances) provided by the DA and other government agencies.
The Secretary of Agriculture is saying that farmer “cooperatives and associations must collectivize.” I am a founding member of the Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative of my hometown Asingan in Pangasinan, so I know coops are on the roadmap to collective power. But I have always had a problem with farmer associations, as I know a great many of them are dictated upon by their leaders or a certain group within. Dictatorship on the proletariat.
Yes, farmers have to wake up to the need for economies of scale. Manong Willie says:
It is easier and more cost-efficient and effective for the DA to deal with organized farmers through their FCAs than individual farmers, as we provide them appropriate training and cutting-edge technologies, including farm inputs like seeds and fertilizers, and farm equipment and machinery.
FCAs is acronym for Farmers Cooperatives and Associations, which are the subject of the Secretary of Agriculture’s Administrative Order 09 dated 18 September 2019[2].
Thereafter, we will urge (the FCAs) to scale up by clustering and consolidating their farms to attain economies of scale.
Without any economies of scale, there will be no Mataas na Ani at Masaganang Kita, bounteous harvests and bountiful incomes.
Under farm clustering & consolidation, FCC, Manong Willie says:
We will offer clustered and consolidated farms (much) incentives on top of the regular technical and marketing (assistances) under our major commodity programs. Incentives will come in the form of farm machineries such as tractors, harvesters, mechanical dryers, and processing equipment and related infrastructure.
The DA will implement FCC for other commodities: banana, coconut, coffee, sugarcane, vegetables and high-value crops.
Now I’m thinking of reviving my 2014 policy proposal for Super Coops I submitted to Senator Cynthia Villar[3], now to be imbued with the DA 2020 super powers called Farm Clustering & Consolidation!@517
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