FOREIGN

7) In recent decades, cooperatives have greatly returned. Cooperatives can do make big
contributions to development of goals. They can generate income for their members and offer
many benefits. Cooperatives need to enhance their generation of income and secure livelihood
for the betterment of their members and society.

According to Sarah Alldred (2013), the benefits of cooperatives in terms of social and
economic can have much more impact, but they need support from the development community
to reach their potential. Cooperatives are not the whole answer to global poverty and economic
injustice, but it is certainly part the answer, because they are part of movement sharing a set of
global values and principles.

Because of renewed attention, there will be challenges to cooperatives. The primary role
of cooperatives is to meet the needs and interests of their members. This is often viewed as an
instrument to achieve the goals set by external agencies, such as governments and NGOs, and
blamed for not reaching the poorest. It is vital to respect cooperatives and should not be blamed
because they are just an enterprise and not banks or other financial instutions owned by
government to reach out the poorest and they have a limited scope of operations.

8) Soft skills owned by coastal communities shows that fishermen have the motivation to
work hard. This means that the communities of South Sulawesi have a high degree of desire to
change their lives by earning a living at sea. However, the strong desire is not supported by
higher level of discipline. Most of the people residing at coastal areas are still not focused in
making fishing as their basic livelihood. Even majority of people who live in coastal areas have a
side job as farmers. Having lack of discipline in their work of fishing community has an impact
on the low level of independence and lack of job and results to meet their daily needs

According to Salamun Pasda (2019), for the sustainability of the fishermen’s business,
the existence of local fishermen cooperative institution during this time in coastal area of South
Sulawesi becomes very important. Fishermen cooperatives as financial institutions can provide
access to capital and marketing of products to the fishermen. However, the existence of
cooperatives that really help fisherman is still not enough. Unawareness of cooperative to those
who live coastal areas is still lacking.

People who live in coastal areas mostly have high motivation to work hard but they lack
level of discipline, independence and responsibility. Because of the unawareness of the existence
and concepts about cooperative, the people in these areas are still in poor category. The level of
poverty is like a living in vicious circle of endless poverty. The said circle is a theory popularized
by Nurkze. In this theory, the cause of poverty is not only caused by lack of development in the
past but also to the obstacles to future. The government must take actions in making the
fishermen aware to cooperatives since these organizations can reach out the poorest that the
government cant.

LOCAL

7) The agricultural cooperatives are effective partners in technology promotion and rural
development of which Development workers at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice)
reported. Agricultural cooperatives were recognized as important vehicles in promoting cost-
reducing and high-yielding rice and rice-based farming technologies through the project
Empowering farmers’ cooperatives through sustainable promotion of high yielding rice
production technologies for progressive rural economy,

According to Christian Flor Guittap, having unified action to become viable while helping
individual members improve is what makes agricultural cooperatives unique. It is certain that the
farmer-members will adopt it in suitable manner when the cooperatives are able to prove that a
specific technology is efficient.

PhilRice partnered with agriculture cooperatives in Nueva Ecija and Pangasinan for the
promotion, evaluation, and adoption of technologies to help their farming communities in 2014.
The partner-agricultural cooperatives are Parista Barangay Defense System Multipurpose
Cooperative (PBDS-MPC) in Lupao, Nueva Ecija. According to Guittap, during their discussion
with PBDS-MPC, they found that the cooperative practices conventional farming such that its
members do not use quality rice seeds and other technologies, and apply fertilizers without
assessing their soil needs. To address these problems, the project members began a technology
demonstration farms and conducted season-long training programs, field days, farmers’ forum,
and training for the cooperative’s farm advisors. Of the 59 farmer-members of PBDS-MPC who
joined in the project, 78% adopted the technologies promoted by the project in 2015 wet season
(WS) and 2016 dry season (DS). According to Joel Pascual, the percentage equates to high level
of adoption. In 2016 DS, 73% of the participating coop-members achieved an average yield
increase of 0.5 t/ha while 22% of farmers attained more than 1 t/ha increase in yield. The use of
certified seeds, Minus One Element Technique (MOET), leaf color chart (LCC), integrated pest
management (IPM), and rice-based farming systems are what the farmer-members of the coop
adopted various technologies A farmer-cooperator Ferdinand C. Orate said, the harvest increased
by up to 40% when he tried using the new variety NSIC Rc308 endorsed by PhilRice through the
cooperative. He also tried planting cash crops such as saluyot, string beans, and okra in the banks
and dikes to sell in the Lupao market.

According to project lead Dr. Aurora Corales, the partnership with cooperatives contributed to
the empowerment of farmers and their organizations toward community welfare. The model may
serve as a guide in promoting location-specific rice, rice-based technologies to improve farmers’
lives and implementing developmental activities, she added.

LOCAL
8) In agricultural and food marketing, efficiency is one of the most important goals. Food security is
directly affected, particularly the economic and physical access to food of households. The availability,
accessibility and affordability of adequate food to consumers can be facilitated by efficient and effective
flow of food from production point (farmers) to consumption point (consumers). Every market actor (e.g.
farmer, market intermediaries and consumers) in an agricultural marketing system plays a key role in
performing marketing functions and providing marketing services that contribute to achieving efficient
marketing process at different sub-markets (e.g., farm, assembly or wholesale, and retail market). The
marketing services such as transport, processing, storage, grading, packaging, wholesaling and retailing
are often provided by market intermediaries like traders, assemblers, processors, wholesalers, truckers
and shippers, marketing and bargaining cooperatives, and retailers. These services normally entail costs,
risks, and payments for the managerial services and risk-taking done by the market intermediary, which
often become a source of market inefficiencies. The inefficiencies even become more likely as more
market intermediaries are involved in performing the marketing functions.

All the key actors in a market chain can be benefited by marketing efficiency. It is achieved when the
resulting marketing costs (including losses) are minimized and the profits or returns of market
intermediaries are reasonable – that is, the marketing margin is just enough to cover the costs of
marketing services and there are no unreasonable profits generated by the market intermediaries
(Pabuayon et al. 2013). In this case, the marketing margin should not be lower than the marketing costs
and to what the market actors would otherwise get from the alternative use of their capital and labor.
Otherwise, they might just shift to other economic activities if there will be no incentives for them to
provide the marketing services. The higher prices received by farmers, the affordable food products or
lower prices paid by consumers, and the profitable business operations and more investments for
market intermediaries are some of the indicators of an efficient marketing system

The several issues and challenges that indicate inefficiencies that the marketing system of agricultural
commodities faces in Philippines, which are becoming even more challenging as the economy
approaches the ASEAN economic integration this 2015 are: (i) the low prices received by farmers for
their produce; (ii) the multiple layers of market intermediaries in agricultural supply chains; and (iii) the
little access to markets (e.g., institutional and export markets). Of all the market actors in the agricultural
marketing chain, the small farmers are often the most affected by these problems

As early as 1970s, organization of small farmers into self-help groups like farmers’ associations and
cooperatives has been identified as a key strategy for improving the production and marketing
performance of small farmers in the Philippines. Over the years, the potential of cooperatives as a viable
and sustainable form of enterprise has been increasingly recognized worldwide. Despite the increasing
advancement of the global agenda for promoting cooperatives as vehicle for development, the role and
contribution of cooperatives in agricultural marketing development are often understated. One of the
reasons for this is the dearth in empirical evidences showcasing the success and potentials of agricultural
cooperatives in contributing to marketing efficiency.

No. 8 Local new reference : Zenaida M Sumalde, Karen P Quilloy (October, 2015) IMPROVING
MARKETING EFFICIENCY THROUGH AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES: SUCCESSFUL CASES IN THE
PHILIPPINES
(https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Karen_Quilloy/publication/325754981_Improving_Marketing_E
fficiency_through_Agricultural_Cooperatives_Successful_Cases_in_the_Philippines/links/5b21ff25aca27
2277fa975cd/Improving-Marketing-Efficiency-through-Agricultural-Cooperatives-Successful-Cases-in-
the-Philippines.pdf)