Bread for the World approves two-year project

Starting June 2007, Simcarrd will be implementing a two-year project funded by Bread for the World titled ““Sustainable Farming and Livelihood for Five Marginalized Provinces in Mindanao through SIAD Approaches” This proposal will be the second phase of an earlier project with Bread for the World and partly funded by Cordaid.  The main objective of this project will be to establish effective access to and control over community assets and natural resources through sustainable farming and social enterprise development of marginalized farming communities in Mindanao. Specifically, the project would like farmers/farming communities to be strengthened and capacitated on sustainable livelihoods and social enterprise development using SIAD approaches. The results or outputs of this intervention will be: a) enhanced resource tenure through improved farm productivity at the household/community level; b) farmers adopt organic farming systems and technology; c) local/LGU policies and programs are in place to support sustainable agriculture; d) SIAD clusters have identified viable product lines and consolidated a common marketing strategy. Simcarrd will likewise help establish a community enterprise fund, a financing window for community social enterprises.

Briefly, what was achieved in the past two-year project also supported by Bread for the World and co-funded by Cordaid was the strengthening of community-based organizations at the barangay-municipal levels to engage in sustainable livelihoods and initially identifying social enterprises along sustainable integrated area development approaches.  SIAD entails an area-focused development approach in marginalized communities that ensures their access and control over productive resources, engaging local governments for access to basic service delivery and policy support, and increasing capabilities of local NGOs-POs for engendered development interventions.  Programs are focused on developing sustainable agriculture farming systems, organizational development training, basic financial and management control seminars for POs, asset reform campaigns, networking and linkage, and policy advocacy.

MASA holds general assembly

The Movement for the Advancement of Sustainable Agriculture (MASA), an NGO-PO consortium promoting sustainable agriculture in the areas of Mindanao, Negros and Palawan recently held a general assembly from 30 May to 02 June 2007 at Ponce Suites, Bajada, Davao City.  Composed of Bread for the World-supported organizations, MASA aims to mainstream SA at the farm level up to the regional level so small farmers can engage the market. MASA started out as a dialogue-forum of BftW partners starting in 2003.  It evolved into a movement with some of its member organizations developing their own enterprises either as a village trading center (Palawan and Negros), market consolidator and integrator.  In Mindanao, MASA is composed of the Coconut Industry Reform Movement (COIR), Kadtuntaya Foundation Inc., SILDAP, Farmcoop, Alternative Forum for Rural Initiatives in Mindanao (AFRIM), and SIMCARRD.  During the GA, it was decided that the BftW support for MASA will be handled by the Palawan Center for Appropriate Rural Technology (PCART) as project holder.  For MASA-Mindanao, Simcarrd will act as the support NGO. Gracing the general assembly was Suzanne Dollman of Bread for the World who took the opportunity to reiterate their support for MASA in the coming years.  She also thanked the group for sustaining the process and of coming out with specific plans for MASA as an organization.  Attending also with Ms. Dollman was John Mark Cajiuat and Ric Armonia of CTI.

5th Street Café opened

As part of its sustainability program, Simcarrd has opened up an organic store and neighborhood café serving Mindanao coffee blends and organic dishes.  Located adjacent to its office, the café primarily caters to NGOs, students and office workers around the Ecoland-Matina vicinity.  The café is ideal for small meetings and after-office relaxation with pipe in music ranging from rhythm and blues to bossa nova.  It also has a wi-fi area for those who want to send last-minute emails and office instructions. “It’s a cozy nook for busy people to relax,” explained Blessy Badoy who acts as the business manager of the enterprise.  Formal opening of the café would happen last week of June 2007 as last-minute touches are being put up. Coffee beans come from partner POs in Basilan, Davao del Norte-Compostela Valley, and Cotabato as well as from Bukidnon.  However, it also sources out beans from as far Cavite and Batangas.  The café also houses a display area for organic rice and muscovado from the brand Healthy Choice.  Organic products come from farmer POs in Agusan del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces and forms part of a cooperation project with the Philippine Development Assistance Program.  5th Street Café is operated by SIMCARRD Enterprises that acts as the social enterprise unit of Simcarrd, Inc.  

Mapping Sustainable Livelihood Projects

 A year after conducting a one-month trainers training course on Social Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development, SIMCARRD and its local NGO-PO partners have slowly identified sustainable livelihoods and social enterprises under its project with Cordaid and Bread for the World.  The course was conducted at Lantaw Bukid Resort, Tugbok, Davao City. Some 25 participants graduated from the course held September 4-30, 2005. The training resulted in each organization doing feasibility studies of potential livelihood projects and community enterprises.  After the studies done over a six month period, business plans were developed with guidance from the course director, Mr. Gico Dayanghirang.  Gico as he is fondly called is a hands-on expert in business development having established his own enterprises. He also worked with the National Economic Development Authority and was consultant to agri-business plantations. 

SIMCARRD believes that a strategic, integrated and sustainable intervention would have a more profound impact on improving the condition of the farming sector in Mindanao. Intervention must be aimed at entire communities of farmers in a major crop production area to derive economies of scale.  It must be integrated to address the entire range of industry related issues adversely affecting the income of farmers.  It must be undertaken by social enterprise components that would generate resources for sustainability and expansion.
SIAD is based on a context where farmers are among the poorest and more numerous among the poverty afflicted sectors in Mindanao.  Their dire economic situation is usually due to the high cost of conventional farming and the low price of their produce. Conventional farming requires the use of expensive inputs such as non-regenerating hybrid planting material and chemical-based fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide.  Chemical-based farm inputs are toxic and degrade the natural fertility and condition of the soil making the farmers even poorer over time.  Farmers are also dependent on traders for financing and sell their produce to them at a low price.  This is to protect trading margins from the cost of a multi-layered and inefficient farm to market supply chain.

While attempts have been undertaken by government and non-government agencies to alleviate the condition of farmers, this is done hardly in a strategic, integrated and sustained manner.  Interventions are directed at small groups of farmers with no economies of scale.  Interventions are also limited to particular segments of the production and marketing process and fail to address other issues contributing to the dire economic situation of farmers.  Financing for instance is made available without a complementary attempt to provide an alternative to conventional farming and to the inefficient farm to market supply chain.  Government is unable to sustain interventions because of changing priorities while non-government organizations have to contend with limited funding.

Go Organic Mindanao coalition formed

Nongovernment organizations, farmers groups and policy advocates in Mindanao have formed the Go Organic Mindanao coalition in response to continuing threats caused by expanding monocrop plantations, intensive promotion of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). “We want to put forward a viable and existing alternative to government’s promotion of agribusiness plantations and mining in Mindanao, “ explained Tom Villarin, one of the group’s convenors.   “Despite the passage of Executive Order 481 creating a national organic agriculture board that sets policy directions for promoting organic agriculture, such mandate is not backed up by funds and institutional mobilization of line agencies involved in agriculture and industry,” declared Villarin who is the Mindanao representative to the recently formed National Organic Agriculture Board directly under the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture Arthur Yap.

The coalition held a series of Mindanao-wide forums celebrating World Food Day from February 16-18.  In Davao City, some 78 NGO-PO/LGU participants coming from Caraga and Davao region participated while some 100 participants attended the Marbel forum for SocSargen areas.  In Kidapawan city, 85 participants attended the forum-celebration.

Dr, Emerlito S. Borromeo of the UP Los Banos and known expert on biotechnology was one of the speakers in the series of forums. He provided a lecture on the ill-effects of GMO and warned that established scientific and technical data showed that GMO is harmful to both humans and the natural environment.  Dr. Borromeo said that unintended effects (desirable or not) happen in both conventional cross breeding and genetic engineering of crops. Unintended effects resulting from natural breeding is unknown only to man, but is already known to nature. Much of the unintended deleterious effect of natural breeding must have already been corrected or eliminated thru crop evolution and by nature’s own preventive mechanisms. Plant breeders often see much deleterious effects of jumbling of genes only when plants that would not readily mate in nature (i.e. can still be mated but natural barriers to mating are already building up) are forced to mate.  No one can be more precise than nature. When plants are cross bred, genes are exchanged only in very specific locations, with its own specific pair.

“In contrast, unintended effects caused by genetic engineering are unknown both to man and to nature. There is no evolutionary history or evolutionary correction to speak of.  Everything is new.  Thorough testing for unintended effects need to be undertaken. That is why GMO’s are highly regulated. If they are very precise as claimed by Dr. Barzaga, why are they highly regulated?, he further explained.

Participating organizations in the coalition are SIMCARRD, Third World Network, Interface Development Interventions (IDIS), Masipag-Mindanao, SEARICE, Don Bosco Foundation, Metsa Foundation, Katakus, Social Action Center-Marbel, PPRDI, MFDC, MASA-Mindanao, Kinaiyahan Foundation Inc., and several partner people’s organizations coming from Caraga, Southern and Central Mindanao.

The coalition plans to organize provincial level networks to promote and consolidate organic agriculture practitioners and advocates, including local government officials.  It will also help facilitate farmer-to-farmer exchanges and promoting the local market for organic agricultural products.  For 2008, the group plans to hold a Mindanao Organic Agriculture trade fair and exhibit in October 16-18 in Davao City.#