Harnessing the Potential for
Farm Diversification
- Mr. Rene Dalayon,
CEO, FEDCO -
Intercropping Cacao and Banana
Federation of Cooperatives in Mindanao
or FEDCO
Who is FEDCO?
FEDCO or Federation of Cooperatives in
Mindanao have 13 Member Cooperatives
located in Region XI, with around 3,000 Agrarian
Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) and small banana
growers owning 3,000 hectares of land planted
only to export-quality fresh Cavendish Bananas
that are both “highland” and “lowland” varieties.
CURRENT BANANA SITUATION
(CAVENDISH)
China Market: 90% of the total production of the small
farmers is marketed to China.
CHINA MARKET QUASI-BAN TO PHILIPPINE
BANANAS:
1,053,000 boxes of 13.5kg. or 14,215 metric tons
of bananas, being chopped weekly as a result.
How will farmers survive?
FARM DIVERSIFICATION
CACAO BANANA AGRI-ENTERPRISE
DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
The CBAED or Cacao Banana Agri-enterprise Development Project is a partnership with:
CBAED Project is composed of: Training and extension, Post harvest facility, CBEC or Cacao banana Extension Center, Organic input facility, Nursery and cacao seedling production and distribution.
Four CBEC will be put up by FEDCO. Each CBEC will have a cacao nursery, organic input facility and demo farm showing bananas growing together with cacao (Inter-cropping Cacao and Banana).
Why diversify?
Maximization of the land area
Increased productivity
In response to the current decrease in demand of bananas in the market
“…putting our eggs in one basket can be too risky especially for smallholder farmers who cannot afford to lose huge amount of money.”
Cacao-Banana Extension Center
(CBEC)
Intercropping Cacao and Banana
CACAO NURSERY
ORGANIC FACILITY
TRAINING AND EXTENSION
2000 farmers will be trained under the project
We measure our success by
how much we’ve help
improve the lives of our
stakeholders.
Thank you!