PBBM Leads Celebration Of Cooperative Day; Eyes Consolidation Of Farmers' Coops And Associations

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. led the celebration of National Cooperative Day at Malacañang, where he called upon the cooperative movement in the country to consolidate local farmers' cooperatives and associations (FCAs) to drive agricultural development.

The President expressed his vision of the cooperative movement, the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), and the government working collaboratively. He assured that the government would always be prepared to fulfill the CDA's needs. I Photo: Bongbong Marcos Facebook

"This is how I envision the role of the cooperative movement today. The cooperative movement is closely related to agriculture, primarily because we need to unite our farmers. The farmers, they're small, but they are one," the President stated.

"I would request the cooperative movement to start the process of consolidating our farmers' associations, our cooperatives, all of them, to enable us to reach a point where we're using larger tracts of land for our agricultural processes."

"That is what we are aiming to achieve," Marcos said, emphasizing that organizing cooperatives and farmer groups into larger associations will grant them a more significant voice. He pledged government support in executing this effort.

The President expressed his vision of the cooperative movement, the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), and the government working collaboratively. He assured that the government would always be prepared to fulfill the CDA's needs.

He stressed that robust cooperatives are crucial to enhancing the country's agriculture and ensuring food security, noting that the Philippines has fallen behind Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam in terms of agricultural production.

"In rice alone, our production costs are very high, and one of the major contributing factors is labor costs. The labor cost for each hectare of rice in the Philippines is double that of Vietnam, Thailand, and even Indonesia, which doesn't export. Certainly, India," he explained.

"The solution to this is mechanization. So how will mechanization be accomplished? Well, of course, we will assist in processing, milling, drying, and packaging, all the way to marketing."

President Marcos stated that through cooperatives, the country could achieve economies of scale, particularly through the use of large farm machinery for production and processing, ultimately leading to reduced food prices.

As of 2022, there were 20,105 cooperatives in the country, a decrease of about 1.8 percent compared to the 20,467 cooperatives registered in 2021.

Credit and financial services cooperatives made up more than half of the total cooperatives in 2022, followed by agriculture, consumers, and marketing cooperatives. Last year, the industry generated nearly 335,000 jobs, based on records.

The National Cooperative Day serves as the primary celebration of the 108th anniversary of the Cooperative Month, institutionalized by Republic Act No. 11502, which declared the month of October every year as the National Cooperative Month.

Cooperatives' efforts to support the government's vision of a food-secure nation include agri-enterprise development, agri-financing and insurance, value-chain integration, market access and fair trade, and climate-smart agriculture.

Technology adoption, training and capacity building, community-based food systems, food processing and preservation, advocacy for policies, and disaster preparedness are also part of the cooperative movement's initiatives.

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