Super Coop Bank – The Missing Link

The above main image is actually the cover of the book published by the Agricultural Credit Policy Council, ACPC, of the Philippines, which is under the Department of Agriculture, DA. The book was published in April 2012 celebrating ACPC’s Silver Anniversary. Titled The Filipino Farmer Is Bankable and subtitled Celebrating 25 Years Of The ACPC, all 150 pages of it, it is a coffee-table book, all pages in color. I was the one-man band writer, photographer, editor, desktop publisher – within 2 months of contract, it came out 25 April in 25 copies, first delivery, in time for that 25th-year ACPC celebration, at its Pasig City offices.

The cover is my photograph of a white-onion field of the Kalasag farmers’ coop in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija, that has had years of rewarding production-to-marketing arrangements with national/international fast-food chain Jollibee Foods.

I did not think about it until today, Tuesday, 21 July 2020, when my 6-year old ideal of a Super Coop got married to the 8-year old reality (in my mind) of the Coop Bank, into the:

Super Coop Bank.

With billions of pesos, the ACPC has been working over the years with coop banks all over the country – a few of which I visited for the coffee-table book. With the ACPC, these coop banks have been successful in their operations working with cooperatives.

And that’s the point. This is what I am now thinking, not only to pursue but to push for agriculture development in the Philippines, and knowing that the ACPC is under the DA:

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar should build a number of pilot Super Coops in PH using Coop Banks under the direct supervision of the ACPC.

The Coop Banks will directly/indirectly supervise the application of coop loans so that in a little while the family of each farmer member of the Super Coop will be released from the shackles of poverty and stay out there in the field of prosperity as long as it behaves properly!

How? With generous loans granted to Super Coops, a Coop Bank will help each coop manage specifically the following:

(1) Production Loans. Granted to Super Coop farmer members, with training & instructions before the granting of each loan. Production covers the processes from planting to drying. No more loans from usurers, no matter how friendly they are, or even if they are family!

(2) Technologies Bank. The Coop Bank will require the Super Coop to gather data & information and make these available such as technologies and systems in usable media forms for the production of any crop, livestock, or any combination.

(3) Postharvest Loans. For the Super Coop itself to put up processing and warehousing units to handle and store farmer produce.

(4) Marketing Arrangements. The Super Coop will forge buy-and-sell transactions with institutional or group buyers – never individual buyers. (Bagsakan centers will not be used as display-to-sell places.)

Via the ACPC, with so many of them cultivated in the country, Super Coop Banks cultivating Super Coops will lead to the eradication of poverty among poor Filipino farmers!@517