A partnership
that will link agriculture cooperatives with the country’s leading agri companies will soon give small
farmers a better chance
at scaling up. The Memorandum of Understanding,
signed between Go Negosyo and the Cooperative
Development Authority
(CDA), aims to identify,
and organize cooperatives, which will then be
assisted by big-brother
companies in consolidating their produce, meeting
market requirements, as
well as accessing credit,
inputs, and training.
The MOU was
signed last January 4,
2024, creating a strategic partnership that would
support and implement the
objectives of the Kapatid
Angat Lahat Agri Program
(KALAP) for the benefit of
the cooperatives sector in
the Philippines. Signing
for Go Negosyo was its
founder, Joey Concepcion, and for the CDA was
its chair, Usec. Joseph Encabo.
The MOU aims
to improve collaboration
between cooperatives and
the private sector, and promotes a value-chain approach through public-private partnerships.
“The bottom line
is poverty alleviation, and
many of the poorer in the
agriculture sector. Unless
we fix that, we will never
solve the problem of poverty,” said Concepcion.
Go Negosyo organized
KALAP to establish strategic partnerships between
the government and the
private sector. Under the
program, small farmers
are integrated into the
value chain of big-brother
companies, giving them
access to mentoring, markets, and capital.
“There are several different inclusive business models that our big
brothers in KALAP have
already implemented; the
cooperatives can adapt
the models suited to their
crop and forge a relationship with the big-brother corporations, such as
helping them get access
to technologies and markets,” said Concepcion.
“The partnership with the
CDA will help us identify
the cooperatives who are
willing to be part of KALAP,” he said.
Go Negosyo is
a non-profit organization
that advocates for MSMEs in the Philippines,
while the CDA is the lead
government agency for all
types of cooperatives. KALAP, meanwhile, was formalized in 2023 through
several MOUs with government agencies. Its
ranks have now grown to
50 big-brother companies.
The principles of KALAP
also became the basis for
several MOUs with the
ASEAN Business Advisory Council of the ten member-states of the ASEAN.
For his part, CDA
Chairman Encabo called
the MOU “timely” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
has been spearheading
efforts to strengthen Philippine cooperatives and
has called on the country’s
cooperative movement
to start the consolidation process for local farmers’
cooperatives associations.
“As we implement the merger consolidation focusing on agriculture cooperatives, the
program can directly infuse to them and roll out
as they make [cooperatives’] resources bigger,
expand their membership,
and add to their assets,”
said Encabo.
Much hope has
been placed on the revitalization of the Philippines’s agriculture sector.
Raising productivity here
is seen to generate additional jobs and stimulate
economic activity, especially in the provinces.
Concepcion…
The World Bank estimates
that around 43 percent of
the country’s land area is
agricultural; the sector accounts for around 24 percent of local employment.
With the Philippines still considered
a lower-middle-income
economy, increasing the
productivity of agriculture,
along with the manufacturing sector, is seen as
key to raising the country
to middle-income status,
a goal that is outlined in
the 2023-2028 Philippine
Development Plan, the
country’s road map for socioeconomic progress in
the medium term. PR
