Agriculture today faces many challenges, including globalization and market liberalization, food price crises, natural resource depletion, climate change, rapid urbanization, changing production and consumption patterns, demographic changes, pandemic, soil health, invasive crop pest and so on. With a growing recognition of the important role of smallholder agriculture for economic growth and rural development in many countries, market-oriented agriculture appears more prominently on the agenda (GFRAS, 2020).
In an earlier publication by Mula (2020) on `Agripreneurship as an enterprise: a boon to SAAD program´, he stated that one way to revitalized and modernized agriculture sector is through agripreneurship as an enterprise. He further reiterated that real development is people development.
With the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program having one of its components, the `Marketing Assistance and Enterprise Development´ has the objective to help communities create enterprises by establishing market linkages and providing technical assistance and logistic support. The program, a locally funded project of the Department of Agriculture, was created in 2017 to contribute to the poverty alleviation of poorest of the poor farmers from 30 priority provinces.
The program provides a wide range of agricultural livelihood interventions from production, processing and marketing-related inputs to its farmer-beneficiaries. One of its major end goals is the establishment of community-based agri-enterprises to ensure the sustainability of the beneficiaries’ source of income. The aim is not only to contribute to the betterment of the lives of its beneficiaries but also the improvement of the whole community by providing quality, nutritious, accessible, and more affordable products in the area.
Before the establishment of such enterprises, livelihood projects on production of crops and livestock were provided to farmer-beneficiaries to efficiently produce the main source of products they wish to market. In addition, social preparation and technical training on production to marketing were provided to improve farming practices and management.
Dir. Mula emphasized the importance of marketing assistance and enterprise development as it will shape farmers to become successful entrepreneurs. SAAD will provide the beneficiaries with marketing assistance and linkage, conduct entrepreneurial capability-building programs, and upscale livelihood into enterprises through collaboration with partners (local government units, private sector, and government agencies).
From 2017 to 2019, a total of 45 agri-enterprises worth Php 33,787,470.00 were established across 6 SAAD provinces managed by 45 groups/associations covering 24 types of community-based enterprise (Tables 1 and 2) with 1,172 farmer group members (Table 2). These provinces include Apayao (CAR), Samar Provinces (Region 8), Southern Leyte (Region 8) and Zamboanga del Norte (Region 9). These enterprises vary from selling fresh and processed crops of vegetables, fruits; and livestock (live & processed) and poultry products (dressed chicken, eggs, quail eggs, and salted eggs).
For 2020 until 2022, the program aims to continue providing agricultural interventions as support to its beneficiaries. These includes various livelihood agri interventions, technical training and capacity building activities in preparation to the establishment of its target community based enterprises.
Table 1. Number of Community-Based Enterprise established and targeted (2017-2022).
|
Particulars |
Established | Target | Grand Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | Total | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | ||
| Number of Community-based Enterprise (CBE) | 1 | 16 | 28 | 45 | 78 | 311 | 102 | 536 |
| Number of Groups Benefited from CBE | 1 | 16 | 28 | 45 | 311 | 536 | ||
Table 2. Detailed enterprise established by province (2017 – 2019).
| Municipality | Barangay | Title of Project | Enterprise Established | Beneficiaries | Name of Association | Year Established | Cost of Project (Php ` 000) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group | No. of Group Members | |||||||
| TOTAL | 45 | 1172 | 33,787.47 | |||||
| CAR | ||||||||
| Apayao | ||||||||
| Pudtol | Brgy. Lower Maton and Brgy. Alem | Quail Production | Selling of Quail egg | 2 | 7 | PIAS Farmers Association, MULA DUR-AS Farmers Association | 2018 | 1,755.00 |
| Flora | Brgy. Malubibit Sur | Quail Production | Selling of Quail egg | 1 | 7 | MAST Farmers Association | 2018 | 1,884.00 |
| Sta. Marcela | Brgy. Panay | Quail Production | Selling of Quail egg | 1 | 7 | PaCoMarNuSan Farmers Association | 2018 | 1,755.00 |
| Region 8 | ||||||||
| Northern Samar | ||||||||
| Lope De Vega | Bonifacio | Vegetable Gardening | Selling of Assorted fresh vegetable (eggplant, pole sitao, pechay, ampalaya & squash) & operating a mini-agrivet store | 1 | 40 | Samahan ng Kababaihan sa Barangay (SAMAKABA) | 2017 | 406.77 |
| Catubig | Cagugubngan | Mallard Duck Production | Selling Salted Eggs, fresh eggs and ducklings | 1 | 40 | Cagugubngan Farmers Association | 2018 | 809.00 |
| Lavezares | Libas | Swine Fattening | Piglets, Feeds and training | 1 | 78 | Rural Improvement Club- Libas | 2018 | 1,865.00 |
| Southern Leyte | ||||||||
| Malitbog | Asuncion, Cantamuac, Concepcion, | Swine Fattening | Marketing of Piglets | 3 | 56 | Cantamuac Farmers Association, Conception Farmers Association, Asuncion Farmers Association | 2018 | 2,129.57 |
| Eastern Samar | ||||||||
| Borongan | Cagbonga, Bayobay | Swine Production and Marketing | Piglet and Carcass selling | 1 | 60 | Cagbunga Backyard Swine and Duck Breeder Association | 2018 | 529.00 |
| Arteche | Carapdapan | Enhanced Poultry Production | Selling of Fresh Eggs | 1 | 32 | Carapdapan SAAD Poultry Farmer Association | 2019 | 2,073.76 |
| Western Samar | ||||||||
| Catbalogan City | New Mahayag | Mallard Duck Production | Selling of Salted eggs, fresh duck eggs, balut, ducklings, and leche flan | 1 | 56 | Mahayagnon Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative | 2019 | 855.00 |
| Jiabong | San Fernando | Mallard Duck Production | Selling of Salted eggs, fresh duck eggs, balut, ducklings, and leche flan | 1 | 25 | San Fernando Farmers Association | 2019 | 427.50 |
| Jiabong | Jia-an | Mallard Duck Production | Selling of Salted eggs, fresh duck eggs, balut, ducklings, and leche flan | 1 | 30 | Jia-an Rice Farmers Association | 2019 | 427.50 |
| Region 9 | ||||||||
| Zamboanga del Norte | ||||||||
| Sibutad | Kanim | Native Chicken Raising | Selling of Live Chicken | 1 | 32 | Kanim Farfish Association | 2019 | 521.00 |
| La Libertad | La Union | Native Chicken Raising | Selling of Live Chicken | 1 | 25 | La Union FA | 2019 | 969.00 |
| La Libertad | Mauswagon | Sibuying production and Processing | Sibuying Pickles (Sweetened and Salted) | 1 | 25 | Mauswagon Sibuying FA | 2019 | 553.00 |
| Mutia | Sto. Tomas, Poblacion | Broiler Chicken Raising | Dressed Chicken | 2 | 52 | Poblacion WA Sto. Tomas WA |
2019 | 3,054.00 |
| Polanco | Villahermosa | Ginger Production | Selling of Raw and processed Ginger | 1 | 30 | Canibongan FA | 2019 | 636.00 |
| Piñan | Ubay, Desin | Upgraded Native Pig Raising | Hog Fattening/Weanling | 2 | 51 | Ubay FA Desin FA |
2019 | 841.00 |
| Dipolog | Diwan | Native Chicken Raising | Selling of Live Chicken | 2 | 100 | Diwan FA | 2019 | 3,263.00 |
| Manukan | East Poblacion, Punta Blanca, Don Jose Aguirre,Villaramos, Patunan, San Antonio | Native Chicken Raising | Selling of Live Chicken | 7 | 96 | Piangon FA, Patunan FA, Don Jose Aguirre FA, East Poblacion FA, Villaramos FA, Sitio Bayol FA, Lingatongan Small Coconut FA | 2019 | 3,669.00 |
| Siayan | Litolet, Macasing, Seriac | Banana Production | Fresh Fruit Banana (Lakatan) | 3 | 30 | Litolet Consumer’s Coop, Macasing Consumer’s Coop, Seriac Consumer’s Coop | 2019 | 1,277.00 |
| Siayan | Moyo, Soguilon, Datagan, Balunukan | Banana Production | Fresh Fruit Banana (Lakatan) | 4 | 60 | Moyo Consumer’s Coop. Datagan Consumer’s Coop, Balunukan Consumer’s Coop | 2019 | 1,522.00 |
Writers: Myer Mula and Jemiema Arro
References:
Global Forum for Rural Advisory Service (GFRAS). 2020. The role of RAS for inclusive agripreneurship. Background and rationale. Retrieved from https://www.g-fras.org/en/ agripreneurship.html#:~:text=With%20a%20growing%20recognition%20of,refers%20to%20entrepreneurship%20in%20agriculture.
Mula MG. 2020. Agripreneurship as an enterprise: A boon to SAAD program. Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program. Department of Agriculture. SAADvocacy 2(5):4&8. ISSN 2718-9791.
