PHILIPPINES – Improving Lives through Partnerships: The Fabrica Village Experience

Camarines Norte, Philippines – Barangay (Brgy.) Fabrica is a small village located in the 5th class municipality of San Vicente in the Camarines Norte, a major coconut-producing province of the Philippines. The coconut farmers in Brgy. Fabrica is primarily involved in copra production where the average income of a household is a meager Php 3,500 a month (USD 72).  The Fabrica Small Coconut Farmers Organization (FSCFO) is a local village-level chapter organization of the Federation of Coconut Farmers and Farm Workers Association for Progress (FECOFFWA) composed of 55 members. They were previously involved in copra production but were introduced to coco-fiber production in 2015 when FECOFWA (formerly NIUGAN) facilitated the relationship between FSCFO and Pilipinas Eco Fiber Corporation, a social enterprise that provided equipment for a coco-fiber processing facility and capacity-building for FSCFO workers and members. FECOFFWA is one of the partner organizations of AFOSP-MTCP2 (ASEAN Farmers’ Organisations Support Programme) in the Philippines which aims to improve the livelihoods and food security situation of smallholder farmers and rural producers in ASEAN countries. By 2016, the Coco-Fiber Processing Facility of FSCFO processes coconut husks into dry fiber and coco peat and employs 18 members as workers.  It has the following equipment: conveyor; decorticating machine; bailing machine; screening machine; twining equipment.

Fostering partnerships and linkages with a wide range of players is an effective strategy in crowd-sourcing non-monetary resources that adds value to existing primary-level enterprise engagement. With assistance provided by FECOFFWA, FSCFO was able to gain support for its coco fiber facility from the local governments (barangay and municipal) of San Vicente. The Brgy. Fabrica Committee on Agriculture allocated some resources as start-up funds for the facility. The municipal government also facilitated linkages to national government agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The DSWD provided support for capacity-building for the training of twine-weaving for 4Ps beneficiaries, who were later employed by the facility to produce coco-fiber rope. The DTI provided the twining machines for the beneficiary of trainings. FSCFO is establishing new partnerships with the Center for Agrarian Reform, Empowerment and Transformation (CARET), and exploring new ways of improving energy efficiency in Coco-Fiber facility via Renewable Energy Systems. FECOFWA’s direct contact with the Philippine Coconut Authority was also useful in providing technical advises to the project.

Linking the value-chain agri-enterprise of small coconut farmers to a social enterprise with a partnership-oriented business model provided an opportunity for growth at a reasonable learning curve pace. With the strong partnership forged with Pilipinas Eco-Fiber Corp. (PEC), a social enterprise established by Foundation for Sustainable Society, Inc., a more relaxed pace of learning and production growth was made available for FSCFO. When PEC agreed to lend its equipment to FSCO, the terms allowed for a staggering increase in production volume. That kind of arrangement provided an opportunity for FSCFO to hone their management skills and time to pull together a raw material supply base. PEC also provided technical support to the farmers on plant operations management and basic quality assurance.

The project planners and initiators ensured that it presented a convincing case for product diversification through value-chain production. When the leaders of FSCFO and FECOFWA were able to convince the members and leaders of the village. Eventually, when bales of coco fiber started to roll out of the plant more players took notice and later contributed to the project.

The project has directly benefitted at least 55 households in Fabrica village. It has increased the income of coconut farmers and has enabled them to provide for some of the basic needs of their families. At present, the FSCFO facility can produce 1,000 kilograms of dried coco-fiber per day. The members of FSCFO are now earning additional income from the sale of coco-husk – Php 250 (USD 6) for 1,000 pieces of coconut husks. Aside from the sale of coconut husks, they also earn an additional Php 6,300 to Php 12,600 (USD 137 to USD 274) per month from making coco fiber ropes.

Indirectly it has reached at least a hundred other farmers from neighboring villages since Fabrica expanded its operation and needed more supply of coconut husks.  The project has also engaged local governments and has in a way made a dent in the program priority of the village level government. The barangay council has included support to their program in the council’s budget for 2018.

The project has also strengthened the capacity of the village organization to manage value-chain enterprises.

The project would not have experienced some success if not for the following facilitating factors:

• Linkage to market with support from FOs and social enterprises at the national level
• Technology support from the national government for rope twining.
• Inter-Farmer Organization Exchanges provided by the AFOSP-MTCP2 platform
• Through initiatives of FECOFFWA and the support of MTCP2, the FSCFO was able to capacitate itself in organizational development and gain access to services, resources, and linkages.

The lessons learned from implementing the project include:

• It is important to build partnerships with other institutions for capacity-building, financial or material support and services, and relationships with fellow farmer members.
• Processing value-added coconut products increase the income of small coconut farmers.
• Engaging in coconut value-addition activities will transform the coconut industry away from traditional copra domination.
• Partnership-friendly, environment-conscious, and fair social enterprises are potential co-creators of family income and organizational growth for family farmers and their organizations.

The following are the challenges to the project:

• There were initial apprehensions by members about the project especially when they didn’t have the viable scale of production yet at the start. At the time very few members were actively participating.
• Some local government politicians at the municipal level are using their power to limit the expansion of the project because they want to engage in the same business line.
• Ensuring the sufficient volume of coconut husks (to attain optimum production) remains a challenge due to various factors which include extreme weather due to climate change.
• Reduction of cost of fuel for the production equipment and logistics is still a challenge. Shifting to more sustainable energy options, while cost-efficient, in the long run, is still too capital intensive for micro-enterprises.

Furthermore, NIA Philippines recommends the following:

• Support for village-level investments on value chain initiatives should be increased and expanded to include not just capacity-building but also linkage and business matching services, business development, production facility upgrading, market support, and product development.
• Development projects should start to include sustainable energy use and renewable energy conversion in their support.
• The establishment of enabling local (municipal and village) policy regime should be of interest to agri development programmers FOs should also be assisted in advocating for areas of improvement in the local business policies so that they can benefit from a fair, predictable, and family-farmer-friendly business environment.
• Increase national government intervention in de-politicizing agricultural development initiatives.

Read other AFOSP-MTCP2 cases for Mekong Hub Knowledge and Learning Fair here