by Lorie Ann A. Cascaro
Planting vegetables since 1970’s on the 1.3 hectare land she inherited, Anita Monsanto had relied on her harvests to put food on the table and send her five kids to school. For so long, her farm products were bought by “middlemen” at prevailing farm gate prices, but on consignment basis. Leaving her source of income at the mercy of these men, she and her family had learned to wait for the return on investment which often than not came later than expected.
Anita, 55 years old, belongs to a group of 13 women who call themselves “Tagurot Center I” in San Nicolas, a village less than ten kilometers from the highway in Panabo City. Each of them has an average of one-hectare vegetable farm. This group is among the beneficiaries of Baba’s Foundation, Inc. (BFI) in its Development Resources for Entrepreneurship and Alternative Management System or “DREAM” program. Under this program is the “Alalay sa Kabuhayan” (ALALAYAN), a group loan system which the Tagurot Center I has availed of since 2003.
Emely S. Comaling, technical support of BFI, said the maximum loan of each member of the group is not more than PhP10,000. At four percent interest on the principal loan, the women are entitled to two types of savings—one for withdrawal and the other for termination. She said they are wary of borrowing a bigger amount for fear they may not be able to pay it on time.
However, their delinquency rate has been only three percent despite payment on a weekly basis because of their “sit down” approach as a delinquency management scheme. Comaling said that in cases when a creditor fails to pay on due date, a group of women will visit the house of the creditor and wait until she can raise the amount.
BFI had provided micro-financing to some 4,000 women who borrowed as much as PhP10,000 each at four percent monthly interest. Starting with a capital of PhP250,000 in 2002, BFI has outstanding loans of PhP20 million with clients in Buhangin, Mintal and Matina in Davao City, and Panabo City.
Having borrowed from BFI, Anita was able to pay for seedlings, fertilizer, and insecticides, as well as labor for planting. She admits it is not enough to have a tract of land and capital to start a vegetable farm. Income comes later after the vegetables are sold in the market.
Recognizing the reality that most farmers, even if they are organized like the Tagurot Center I, still rely on local traders and businessmen to market their products and cash in on their labor, the BFI assisted the group for partnership with the Foundation for a Sustainable Society, Inc. (FSSI). A non-government organization funded by the Swiss government, FSSI granted PhP300,000 to the BFI for their Sustainable Marketing with Information Link Enterprise (SMILE) project.
The SMILE project assists BFI in the procurement and marketing of the products of marginalized farmers. Thus, instead of relying on middlemen, the women harvest their own produce and sell it to BFI at the same farm-gate price. The BFI pays with cash upon the procurement of the products, and does the marketing. “Gusto namo cash para marolling ang kwarta. Dili pareha sa uban nga consignment, usahay may balance pa sila (We want to be paid with cash, unlike before when middlemen took our vegetables on consignment basis and yet failed to pay the balance to the growers who needed the money to resume planting for the next crop.),” Anita said.
The BFI has established an organized and systematic marketing system that will link all the farm-producers directly to the markets. In its 2008-2010 report, the SMILE project had established markets in three public markets, four restaurants, eight eateries, two banks, five NGOs and two government offices.
Anita said most of their neighbors’ lands were leased at PhP15,000 per hectare yearly to the Marsman firm for producing export banana. She also confirmed that vegetable farming has given them better earnings, especially after they became beneficiaries of the BFI and FSSI. The most conservative income from a weekly harvest of ampalaya is PhP3,000, or PhP12,000 a month. She said 250 grams of squash seedlings costing PhP1,500 may generate a gross income of PhP30,000.
“Pobre man gyud kaayo mi, pero tungod sa tabang sa organisasyon, makainom na mig tubig (We are really poor but because of the help of the organization, we can now drink water),” Anita said by way of a metaphor. Thanks to her vegetable farm, four of Anita’s children finished high school, with the youngest going on to graduated from college.
The FSSI advocates economic empowerment of the poor in urban and rural areas through the promotion of eco-enterprises with economic viability, ecological soundness and social equity. This year, it has 30 partners consisting of rural banks, cooperatives, foundations, people’s organizations and civil societies that provide micro-financing. It has five partners in Mindanao, including Davao City, Cagayan de Oro City, and Cotabato City. Every year, the FSSI grants out PhP10 million, with 26% of its total grants or PhP97.96 million being loans at only 9-11% interest rates.
