Gomer G. Tumbali2015 National Agriculture, Fishery and

Natural Resources Extension SymposiumAsian Institute of Management

29 September 2015

Why Focus Extension Service to Smallholder

Farmers?

7.9 million prime agricultural land in the Philippines are owned by smallholders as a result of agrarian reform; they can provide the quality and quantity agricultural produce needed by the market

- DAR Annual Report

For every dollar invested in smallholder agriculture, the yield doubles, compared with other sectors.

- World Bank and IFAD, Building Inclusive Value Chain (2008)

Family farming/smallholder farming has been a key factor in economic development and structural transformation.

- High Level Panel of ExpertsOn Food Security and Nutrition (2013)

Small-scale farming is more efficient, and has the ability to double food production in less than a decade.

- Olivier de Schutter, “Agroecology and the Right to Food” (2010)

FBS as an extension scheme is well positioned to contribute to mitigating the negative effects to the smallholders of the open markets brought about by globalization, especially by the ASEAN Economic Community

Issues related to food and agriculture are comprehensively integrated among the 17 post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.

SDG1, End poverty, includes targets related to social protection, land rights and resilience

SDG2 is dedicated to ending hunger, improving food security and nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture.

a new extension program designed to help farmers build knowledge, enhance skills, and adjust attitudes to make their farms more profitable by learning about business.

inspired by the Farmer Field School (FFS)

Recognizes the farmers’ knowledge and valuable experiences.

Field-oriented and farmer-centered. Employs learning by doing. Uses discovery-based learning. Interactive and responsive

focused on the transition of the farmers towards farm business management and market-oriented farming

a venue that brings like-minded farmers together to develop their entrepreneurial skills and competencies

guided by a set of training materials contained in a 25-session business-oriented ‘curriculum’ contained in a manual that was adopted to the Philippine setting

Understanding and applying basic concepts of business in farming

Entrepreneurial competencies that farmers should posses to make farming profitable, cost and return analysis, and computing break-even yield and price as guide for pricing

Understanding marketing, markets, production-marketing chain and surveying market demands

Evaluating technical feasibility and availability of physical and power inputs

Developing vision and goal for the farm business

Farm business Evaluating the business after the season Replanning for the next season.

Not all farmers can be transformed into entrepreneurs.

All about the MARKET.- PARTNERSHIP WITH MARKETING GROUPS

- PENETRATING NEW MARKETS

From Jan 2015 to July, 2015, about 125 Tons of fresh vegetables were traded, amounting to Php 3.175M, by the cluster of lead farmer-graduates who enlisted in the partnership;

With an average premium of 6 Php/kg, this translates to approx. Php 750,000 in additional income for the partner farmers.

Php 60,355 additional income was generated by the farmers’ cooperative, as the consolidator of the agricultural produce.

Budget allocation of MLGUs for the conduct of critical activities within the FBS curriculum.

Extension workers assigned as FBS facilitators from the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist should be freed from hectic schedule to attend to the market linkage; more trained personnel of the OMA on the FBS

Increasing personnel to lead the conduct of market assistance activities.

Immediate hiring of additional personnel for the unit in charge of marketing assistance to farmers.

Enhancing the capacities of extension personnel in market-oriented extension..

Maintaining the quality of training of facilitator-extension providers at the field level.

ATI has started the national implementation in 2014

DAR started pilot implementation in the 2nd

quarter of 2015

The local chief executives and agricultural program administrators in the pilot areas have embraced the FBS as an innovative extension modality to improve the lives of small farmers in their jurisdictions.

The FBS facilitators committed their time, effort and resources toward successfully managing their respective schools.

The farmer-participants felt they truly had a stake in the conduct of the FBs in their communities as it put a premium on their personal farming experiences.

The FBS has empowered these farmers who now hold themselves in higher esteem. They are no longer “just” farmers — they are farmer-entrepreneurs.

Thank you.