Feature: Banana farming plants hope of progress in Veruela town of AgSur
By DA-Caraga
Having no signal and distant from
industrial developments, residents of Barangay Sta. Emilia, Veruela, Agusan del
Sur almost lost hopes in improving their lives by selling the only common
commodity in the community, the bananas.
However, when the Department of Agriculture Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) in Caraga intervened in 2018, it restored the farmers lost confidence and shed light on the community.
Improving Banana Industry
The Kinabugawan Farmers Producers
Cooperative (KIFAPCO) is one of the Proponent Groups of the I-REAP or
Enterprise Component of PRDP. The nine-year-old coop started from 25 members
and struggled to establish their coop since it’s in a remote area.
According to Maricel Bautista,
KIFAPCO Secretary and a banana farmer, aside from the problems in the field,
selling bananas has been unlucrative since many times buyers reject their
products.
Members were also lost in the
marketing operations of the coop, unaware of the financial process and
management.
In 2018, PRDP funded KIFAPCO with
P928,000 for the two interventions: the establishment of a 2-hectare (ha)
Lakatan plantation as an expansion to the existing 13-ha Lakatan area of
KIFAPCO and a provision for the buying station, weighing scale, and operational
fund for its banana production and trading business.
The project allowed KIFAPCO to expand
its economic activities on buying and selling bananas thereby generating income
for the coop. On top of the income from their Lakatan production, a P0.25/kg is
added to their coop.
Further, the microenterprise members
and banana growers are guaranteed a sure market for their produce since KIFAPCO
consolidates and sells it to their contracted buyer. Likewise, farmers get a
fair market price, increasing their income up to five percent (5%).
For three years, PRDP provided
training to the coop such as Enterprise Operations and Manual, Simple
Bookkeeping, and Capability Development Planning. This engaged them in properly
managing the coop’s finances and operations.
“These training helped us how to
manage the coop’s money, how much it should profit and the annual patronage
refund of the beneficiaries. We learned how to manage a business,” blurted
Bautista.
Gabato also emphasized that the
training opened their eyes to how credit and debit work.
“We thought before that credit is
loan and debit is just arguing during a session. Then PRDP taught us that it’s
different in the financial aspect. Credit is income and debit is expenses. Now
we can itemize our operations and regulate our financial record and that’s very
important in a cooperative,” Gabato said.
Empowered banana farmers
All the interventions of PRDP gave
strength to KIFAPCO. They expanded their plantation area from the original
two-hectares plantation to five-hectares. The coop also accumulated assets
worth P3M.
Banana farmers were empowered to expand their area and immerse themselves in business.
“My banana area was just 1-ha before. With PRDP’s training on proper planting, I was encouraged to expand my plantation to 7-ha. My income increased from P10,000 to P30,000 per month depending on the market price. Residents here have been buying cars already since their monthly income is guaranteed and has a huge increase. PRPD helped us a lot,” Bautista said.
Further, even during the pandemic,
KIFAPCO had no issues in selling their products since their contracted buyer
could freely come to their coop and buy their bananas.
Banana farmers meet World Bank
With the banana farmers’ hard work
and PRDP’s interventions, KIFAPCO has grown to be a booming enterprise. This
gave them the ticket to represent PRDP Caraga’s I-REAP to the World Bank
Mission consultation and dialogue.
Chairman Gabato addressed the
question from the world bank consultant Agnes Deshormes on how they foresee the
coop’s growth.
“We envision to strengthen KIFAPCO's
marketing strategies which will also improve the lives of the banana farmers.
In business marketing, we encourage the members to sell their bananas to us so
that our income will increase. In every purchase, P0.25 goes to our coop. The
amount will surely increase and we can use this to improve the coop and help
our banana farmers,” he said.
Gabato added that despite the many
negativities brought by the pandemic, it became an advantage to them.
"During the height of the
pandemic when the lockdown was implemented, residents concentrated in farming
specifically banana since it is the notable commodity here. Most untilled lands
were now planted and this increased banana production," Gabato disclosed.
KIFAPCO and other PGs from Visayas
and Mindanao were lauded by the World Bank consultants including Eli Weiss,
Maria Theresa Quinones, Tim Hancock, and Agnes Deshormes for their hard work
despite the calamities and crisis they have encountered along the way. (Zenny
Awing/DA-PRDP13/PIA-Agusan del Sur)
