I was asking them to write about Small But Enterprising Farmers. That was an impossible task – no farmers in the Philippines as yet is minding his own business! (image “Mind Your Farm Business” from Real Agriculture[2])
What we have in journalistic articles in aggie media online and on print are mostly well-to-do farmers who of course succeeded in growing their farming business. They are not typical of poor farmers. What I was thinking of were small farmers who made big because they learned their entrepreneurial lessons. The problem is that right now, there are no trainings or classes to teach the small farmers to think big and handle their finances from cultivating to marketing and earn what is due them as producers of food.
What happens is that farmers borrow from usurers to pay for their seeds, fertilizers, farm chemicals, and some other perceived needs. They also borrow money during the lean months, of course at usurious rates, which they have to pay come harvest time – with the price of rice dictated by the merchant, who happens to be the one whom they owe their loan(s).
What to do? I am thinking that for farmers to rise from poverty to prosperity, we need to:
(1) Build Super Coops. These will provide everything that the member farmers need, from loans to inputs to machinery to marketing services.
(2) Train farmer entrepreneurs. Farmers must begin to think rich. Aside from serving the needs of the member farmers, Super Coops will train them to think like businessmen do – always considering costs & returns. For instance, if you borrow from a usurer, at the very beginning you are a loser.
And that is a job for Superman!
Actually, it’s a job for Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie. That is to say, he now has to think more of cultivating thinking farmers in his push for “The New Thinking For Agriculture.”
To produce those ideal farmers described above, I am thinking of 2 to 3 model multi-purpose coops, Super Coops, built in each of the 17 regions of the Philippines. The PH government, through the DA and public banks, as well as private partners, will help each of the Super Coops to acquire liquid assets as well as tools, machines, equipment, and warehouses for storage of harvests before and during marketing. That would require billions of pesos, but:
We have to invest big in our farmers for them to learn to invest big in themselves!
The farmer members will be trained in new or improved technologies and systems for cultivation, planting and/or transplanting, fertilization, pest management, harvesting, postharvest handling including drying, warehousing, and marketing.
Our small farmers will now have to be trained to mind their own (farm) business, a strange thought to each of them!@517
[1]https://ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com/2020/06/enterprising-awards-in-spirit-of-jose.html
[2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=sYhV8pMqeJg
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