THE Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said it is seeking to collaborate with more farm cooperatives and associations for its agri-entrepreneurship program in the Philippines, with a particular focus on involving indigenous peoples and the youth.

“What we would like to explore is the possibility to work with indigenous peoples and also the possibility to work with youth,” FAO Country Representative to the Philippines Lionel Henri Valentin Dabbadie told BusinessWorld.

The FAO is also hoping to improve the agricultural economy in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

He said that FAO started its agri-entrepreneurial program to address farmer groups affected by the conflicts in BARMM. These included Christian and Muslim farmer communities.

“We are expanding to new regions, and we are also trying in the same region to diversify the beneficiaries,” Mr. Dabbadie added.

He said that the FAO typically works with community-based organizations through capacity-building and training exercises for local producers.

“We try to build the capacity of the cooperative. They are the one who serve as a relay between the farmers, and we teach the cooperative how to make cost recovery and how to serve their members better,” he added.

Mr. Dabbadie said that the FAO also tries not to resort to subsidies but favors a skills-improvement approach. 

“We provide this capacity, and we provide it as part of a collective approach. So most of the time it’s with cooperatives sometimes what we do also is collective training (through) the farmer field school,” he added.

He said that the FAO also provides equipment and technical assistance to help producers tap broader markets.

“The entry point is really the market and increasing the capacity of the producers to reach those markets… there is a huge market for pasalubong (souvenir) products,” Mr. Dabbadie added.

Among the souvenir products produced by the FAO’s project with the BARMM were banana chips and donuts.

“I would say that you can sell any kind of product, but you need to provide value addition. (That is why) we very seldom encourage the people to sell raw products,” he said. — Adrian H. Halili