by Lorie Ann A. Cascaro
Twenty years of working for a multinational banana company in the Davao region taught him to take the side of small farmers and apply what he had learned to the improvement of their economic condition.
An outstanding leader among his fellow farmers, Ireneo “Rene” D. Dalayon, chief executive officer of the Federation of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries’ (ARB) Banana-Based Cooperative of Davao (FEDCO), has seen and felt first hand the plight of small farmers and growers in the country.
“Nagdako gud ko sa uma (I grew up on a rice farm),” Dalayon said. Third of 11 siblings—five boys, six girls—he lived with his family in Mlang, North Cotabato. They owned a 10-hectare rice field which was pawned by his parents, Hermogenes and Gloria Daquila, so they could send their children to school.
Dalayon said that majority of Filipino farmers are in debt instead of earning a profit from their harvests, noting that the average farmer owns one hectare of land. He said his family could hardly make a go of it even with their 10 hectares.
“It was only when I was already employed and had saved enough money that we were able to reclaim our land,” Dalayon said.
He finished his secondary education at the Notre Dame of Mlang High School, and in 1974, graduated with a degree in commerce, major in business administration from the Southern Baptist College, also in Mlang.
Although he was not among the top college graduates, Dalayon had shown exemplary leadership as a student. Not only was he president of various academic and civic organizations, he was also president of a Catechist group for four years.
“I passed the 1974 national civil service examination. Although seven firms and institutions offered me employment after graduation, I chose instead a multinational banana company,” he said.
“The high salary, privileges and allowances attracted me to work there,” he shared.
His exposure to the banana industry began when he was employed by the multinational which assigned him as quality inspector of the fruit. Later he worked in the accounting department for five years. But when he was assigned as grower relation officer, his tasks were combined with office and field work.
Dalayon learned everything involved in the economics of the banana industry which includes, among others, production, proceeds for the growers, and the salary of workers.
In the course of his employment, he was able to save P200,000, much of it coming from his allowances. Along with his wife, Glenda Alagao, who also worked in the same company and is presently employed by FEDCO, he was able to acquire a total of eight hectares of land in various parts of the region which he planted to rice, banana and cacao.
While he was an employee, he became a banana grower himself in 1991. “Instead of earning millions as they were made to believe upon signing the growership contract, the growers ended up being tied to the company for long years due to their humungous debts to it,” he said.
Following his resignation from the company in 1994, Dalayon ventured into the processing and exportation of coal briquettes. That lasted for some time. Then in 1997, he was employed as a marketing and organizing officer of a non-government organization (NGO) of agrarian reform beneficiaries, FARM Cooperative.
In 2001, he was appointed as chief executive officer of FEDCO, an NGO organizing 4,000 banana growers in the Davao region.
Capitalizing on his expertise in persuading people (just as he was able to persuade landowners to plant bananas for the company which he previously worked for), Dalayon has been successful in clinching deals with international traders which involves exporting small farmers’ agricultural products at reasonable prices.
He said a multinational company will buy growers’ bananas at P10 per box, but at that rate, 3,000 boxes of banana produced on a one-hectare land per year earns a grower only a meager income of P30,000.
“That’s why farmers have not improved their condition because the high costs of farm inputs force them to borrow money from the company. They may earn thousands but owe the company millions,” he said by way of illustration.
Punning agriculture as “ugly-culture,” he added that while agricultural products are bought from farmers at a very low price, prices of commodities continue to rise and end-users pay a lot. “Neither the farmers nor end-users benefit from this system, only the traders do,” he said.
But with Dalayon’s leadership in FEDCO, member-farmers have been able to claim what is due them. He said after the ARBs staged a strike in 1998 and the small growers in 1999 against the companies they had been tied to, the farmers’ demands were finally brought to the table.
“Previously, we called the contract “growership”; after the negotiations we changed it to “freight on board (FOB)” as it follows the dollar price in the global market. We were able to raise the price of bananas from P10 to P100 per box,” he said.
Since then, Dalayon said, thousands of farmers have been able to pay off their debts and can now afford to provide themselves with basic needs.
Citing the benefits to the community from the farmers’ success, he said, “Hurot ang appliances na baligya sa Tagum ug Panabo (appliances were quickly sold out in Tagum City and Panabo City). Ni-prosper ang negosyo (The business prospered),” he said.
With FEDCO, small farmers directly export their products to other countries without channeling them through multinational banana companies. They also have direct access to farm inputs instead of being exploited by local traders.
Another success of FEDCO was when farmer-members were able to consolidate and ship Class B bananas to the China market at a price eight or nine times higher than the Class A which under the growership contract is only at P10 per box. Between 1997 and 2001, they shipped 80,000 boxes of bananas to China per week.
“Padatu-a ninyo ang mga mag-uuma aron modatu ang Pilipinas (Make the farmers rich so that the Philippines will become rich, too),” Dalayon told some of his friends in government agencies with which he is connected through their projects.
Dalayon is the chairperson of the banana cluster in the Davao Industry Cluster Capacity Enhancement Project (DICCEP) headed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). He is also the head of agriculture in region 11 under the DTI’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Council.
Having participated in various international trade exhibits, such as in China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei, Dalayon realized that farmers in those countries are much better off than their Philippines counterparts. He does not believe that over-population is the root cause of poverty.
One of the 18 finalists from all over the country for the 2010 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year—Philippines, along with Remigio G. Salanatin from Davao City, Dalayon said, “A growing population is not a problem if everyone is doing something.”
“If only government leaders would set aside their self-interest,” he added, “corruption would come to an end and farmers could be given more support and funding that will pave the way to the country’s agricultural development.”
Blessed with three children—George (dentist), Mary Joyce (physician) and Elvin who works in Dubai, this 59-year old leader-entrepreneur has no plan of retiring yet as his dream to emancipate poor farmers from their wretched situation is yet to be realized.
“It is my desire that all farmers can afford basic necessities and will be free from debts,” he said, adding that this would happen only when all farmers unite and struggle to win hard battles.
