Once again, good afternoon everyone, I am Nenith Esic and I will continue to

discuss the other problems faces by the agricultural cooperatives…which is

Weak Culture of Working Together
- There is a saying which confirms this phrase, which is, “Filipinos have the
culture of eating together”, however, this culture is not observed at
commitment to work. Most of the time, people wish to enjoy benefits at the
expense of few hard worker individuals. Most of the agricultural members
do not participate in the day-to-day affairs of cooperative regularly and they
do not avail themselves on meetings. Unfortunately, members were not in
the place because they gave priority for their private tasks.
Loss of Livelihood or Negative Income of the Members Brought About
Inevitable Events
- It was experienced by the Southern Negros Agri-Fisheries Multipurpose
Cooperative (SONAMCO) brought about pandemic.
For those who don’t know the Southern Negros Agri-Fisheries Multipurpose
Cooperative (SONAMCO), it is a duly registered and organized cooperative which
takes pride in producing high-quality shrimps and milkfish. It owns a 46 hectares
fishpond located at Sumaliring, Siation, Negros Oriental, wherein they used to
send tons of shrimps to Manila weekly via commercial air freight. But the COVID-
19 pandemic posed a big challenge to the cooperative. On April 4, 2020, the
manager, Mr. Juventud V. Chavez reported CDS II Ms. Gracia Nenita Banogon
who was then monitoring the agriculture cooperative. The cooperative has 33 tons
of shrimps ready for market but commercial flights were unavailable. They tried
seaborne freight but it entails longer travel time that could affect the product’s
quality & sales.