BREAKOUT SESSIONS’ HIGHLIGHTS: MARKETING

I. Development of a Sustainable Farm Tourism Enterprise

The first resource person is Ms. Josephine Costales from the renowned
Costales Nature Farms. Ms. Costales was from IT industry before into
developing farms alongside with his late husband. She shared most of the time
the farms she had visited especially from different countries. One of the
remarkable things she said was, “Catch a fish to live.” Also, she shared the
eight (8) Ps of Farm Tourism. These are: Passion, Proposition, Partnership,
Promotion, Peace and Order, Profit, Poverty Reduction and Place. First and
foremost, she stressed that Passion must be with enthusiasm. Farming
according to her is a full-time job and needs to be worked “hands-on”. In
Proposition, she discussed that a farmer who wants to start in his or her own
must find unique product and environment. In addition, she added that
Partnership with government agencies such as Department of Agriculture (DA)
and Department of Tourism (DoT) is very important. Accreditations to these
agencies especially with the attached agency of DA, Agricultural Training
Institute (ATI) opens a lot of opportunities. Promotion for her can be very
effective for she managed to utilized what she has learned in the years she
worked in the IT industry. She added the use of Digital Marketing, giving
Traveloka and Klook as examples. She pointed out that there must be
consideration for the costs invested in a farm not needing to always give the
products to the clients. Peace and order, as she said that would be self-
explanatory. The speaker had to run through with the remaining parts of Farm
Tourism due to time constraints. As one of her practical tips, she gave
emphasis on the identification of the target markets such as: backpackers,
family, students, government staffs, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and
many others. For her, instead of going to malls instead, give students more
learnings through farm tours. As for the questions of the participants after the
talk, Dr. Lourdes Batanes, a Tourism Farm starter and a retired professor asked
on the accreditation process. The speaker said that ATI gives a lot of learnings
having it as an advantage also, a farm tour owner must accomplish basic
needed documents and have a collaboration with Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI). One of the questions also raised was about encouraging youth
in organic farming. Ms. Costales impressed that the children must be brought
back to basic.
II. Digital Platform for the Production, Marketing and Sales of Organic
Products

The second resource speaker is Mr. Henry James Sison, a Managing Director
in Accenture. As he started, he opened up being into weekend farming. He also
said in organizing farmers, it is very essential to actually know when is the off-
season especially the bad weather times. One of the things he also impressed
to the participants was changing the way doing business; changing the way
managing it. The samples he cited on these are the following: Amazon
disrupted the department stores as well as the other brands in the market such
as Air BnB, Uber and Grab. He pointed out as well the very relevance of
Forecasting to this field. Lastly, he shared on developing a system for planting
a certain crop in a land and the harvests will be estimated afterwards. For the
conclusion of the talk, the questions were asked to Mr. Sison. The first one
came from Ms. Sonia, a municipal agriculturist from Quezon. She asked on the
system he discussed earlier if it is available freely to the local government units
(LGUs). He responded by simply saying, “Our goal is for farmers to help them”
but jokingly remarked having shares after helping them. The next participant is
from Region II, Northern Luzon. He raised an issue on Forecasting. Aside from
the transport process, the speaker responded by helping manage the logistic
costs for it deemed very crucial on the said phase.
III. Creative Media for Consumer Awareness

Mr. Ruy Valente Polistico is the next resource speaker. He claimed to be an

actual farmer for 10 years. As introduction, he asked “Why is Organic not a
mainstream product?” He enumerates certain reasons. The public, per se lacks
awareness. The stakeholders or simply the consumers revolve around the
Republic Act (R.A.) 10068: Organic Agriculture Act. It is a nationwide
educational campaign for all to be addressed. He stressed out if the Filipinos
do adhere to this act and it should not be dependent all to the government. Mr.
Polistico is very enthusiastic in dealing the public having the right choice
especially with the ones they consume. He related the marketing to market
linkaging. According to him, Organic system is the most morale.
The speaker actually leading some people in good nutrition. He asked the
audience, “Have we been telling people to eat?” To pack with nutrition, he
shared one must have good soil. He also added that the ordinary people should
learn and understand it. In order to make the people more aware, he suggested
to find creative ways such as to “laymanize” the terms to be used in materials.
Lastly, aside from the emphasis on the proper educating of people in organic
agriculture, he also impressed to the people of utilizing the power of media.
 IV. Consumer Awareness

Dr. Nim Gonzales is the last resource speaker. He opened the discussion with
the following topics such as: global issues and pollution. According to him,
climate change is a health crisis including the younger generation. The values
nowadays of this generation are as follows: the 24/7 culture, having no patience
anymore causing to get easier sicknesses, throw-away society, immediate
gratification that hates waiting at this point of time, and globalization.
He also warned the audience in the consumption of foods such as drinking too
much bottom less tea resulting to Cholelithiasis. The cultural foods such as
alcohol, fatty and sugars are all Filipino favorites. He stressed out that the
culprit and problem of organic agriculture is people hate information, ignorance
and love fake and instant news. Dr. Gonzales pointed out that the solution is
simply innovation. This has to extend or shorten one’s life.
The Iceberg of Organic Farming is that the foundation is said to be very
important. The insights from Science as he enumerated: aquarium effect which
has the holistic approach, butterfly effect and the universal having the true,
good and beautiful concept. Also, he shared that the processed or canned
foods are just giving someone a satisfying feeling and makes tummy bigger.
The speaker told the public that the need is to study and learn the environment,
per se. He also had a funny remark that “do not stand around with negative
people” only with organic ones.

BREAKOUT SESSIONS’ HIGHLIGHTS: POLICY

I. ATI’s Organic Agriculture Programs/Projects under New DA

Administration, and its Status/Updates & ATI-CALABARZON Best
Practices

Facilitated by ATI RFO IV A CALABARZON, the breakout session was

discussed by the ATI IV A Training Superintendent I Mariel Celeste C.
Dayanghirang. In her discussion, she highlighted “HiLING Program” as one of
ATI-CALABARZON’s best practices under DA administration.

HiLING Program, dubbed as the extension innovation of the ATI-Region IV A,

stands for High impact, Location specific, Institution centered, Need based, and
Goal directed in a sense that the program is designed for the sustainable
development and sustainable intervention. Ms. Dayanghirang explained and
justified the acronym of HiLING—High impact such that it involves
national/regional agencies, SUCs, LGUs, and the private sector; location
specific usually involving 4th to 6th class municipalities; Institution centered with
 each members of the family as beneficiaries; Need-based with specific
interventions matched with the location’s needs; and Goal oriented activities in
line with Ambisyon 2040, Ani at Kita of DA, ATI, and capacitating families and
farm communities.

From 2016-2019, a total of 84 families were reported to benefit from the

programs with a total of 336 individuals across CALABARZON.

The implementation framework of HiLING program was discussed into ints

parts, pre-intervention phase (conceptualization, planning, and preparation
phase) five months before actual intervention, actual intervention phase for six
months, and impact evaluation phase. All of which are aimed to cause
maximized productivity and profit to beneficiaries, disaster readiness in times
of calamities, and empowerment among individuals.

The discussion was concluded with video presentation about the program and
insights about the beneficiaries. The video featured 30 families as the
beneficiaries; 16 from Macalelon, Quezon, and 14 from Mabitac, Laguna.
Families were engaged into a series of trainings and seminars: DRRM on
climate change, first aid training, Farmers Field School (FFS), Farmers
Business School (FBS), Training on Meat processing, Training on Enterprise
Development, Training on Early Child Care Development (ECCD), Training on
Gender and Development, Training on Rice Updates and the like. Furthermore,
regional youth camps, planting soybean and tricantera, and FFS on sustainable
pig farming were also launched by the program.

II. Program of Sustainable Agriculture in the Communities

Fr. Edu Gariguez, Executive Secretary of Caritas Philippines discussed on

Sustainable Agriculture Community Empowerment and Resilience Strategy. As
part of the humanitarian, development, and advocacy arm of CBCP, the
National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA)/Caritas Philippines, Fr.
Gariguez highlighted the involvement of the church and their organization in
serving and helping the most vulnerable, including farmers. He started his
presentation by defining food security; quoting the 1996 World Food Summit,
as the concept is said to exist “when people, at all times, have physical and
economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary
needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” With this, he
stressed the importance of agriculture and rural development in addressing
poverty, more specifically in investing small holder farmers.
 In his discussion, Fr. Gariguez explained the three tenets of NASSA:
Humanitarian, development, and advocacy, along with their attributed projects
and activities. Humanitarian efforts of the organization is said to focus on relief
& rehabilitation, emergency response and community-managed disaster risk
reduction (CMDRR). Meanwhile, development includes sustainable agriculture
and rural development, livelihood and poverty alleviation, self-help group
(SHeG) – MicroFinance, and Social Enterprise. Lastly, advocacy efforts include
justice and peace, ecology and Laudato Si Campaign, Land Rights and
Agrarian Reform, and Good governance and Human Rights.
Focusing on small farmers, farmer communities, food sovereignties, he
discussed sustainable agriculture framework and principles. Basically, in the
PMP framework on Sustainable agriculture, economic, environmental, and
social factors are unified by Food and livelihood security, social organization
and promotion of farmers’ rights, and environmental regeneration. Another
framework supplementing the discussion was shown; with sustainable
agriculture, land rights/agrarian reform, community empowerment, and
ecological advocacy/resilience unified by the concept of improving quality of life
and achieving a sustainable ecosystem.
Some programs and activities of the organization in line with the frameworks
were discussed by Fr. Gariguez: FarmFirst, the Sulong Carper program,
Climate Change Mainstreaming in Community Organizing, Natural Resource
Management Through Sustainable Agriculture, Disaster Preparedness through
CMDRR, Product Development and Creation of Community Enterprise with
Social Mission, Building Community Resilience Towards Food Security,
amongst all other land installation and ownership, land production, and legal
process initiatives of the catholic church serving the farmers, farmer
organizations in securing their lands and capacitating them with sustainable
agriculture and resiliency to climate change.
Fr. Gariguez also introduced the organization’s published reading materials
about FarmFirst for Climate Change and Establishing Community Managed
Learning Farms Towards Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture. He stressed
that all their programs, activities, and initiatives seek everyone’s participation,
contribution, and involvement, regardless of religion or belief.

III. Land Bank of the Philippines Agricultural and Development Lending

Center “Capital Opportunities”
Account Officer Edwin Umali of Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) Agricultural
and Development Lending Center- Cavite discussed on the salient features and
requirements of the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF)
Lending Program as part of the Capital Opportunities of the LBP. The said
program was implemented in compliance with RA 8178 or the Agricultural
Tarrification Act, as amended by RA 10848 or the ACEF Extension Act in order
to increase the productivity of farmers and fisherfolks, including their
cooperatives and associations, micro and small enterprises, through extension
of credit assistance.
Apart from the ACPC, the government also extended loan assistance through
ACEF. According to Mr. Umali, ACEF aims to provide necessary credit to
farmers and fisherfolk and their cooperatives and associations, and micro and
small enterprises to increase their productivity and to establish an agricultural
lending program that enhances competitiveness of target project beneficiaries
or sectors especially small farmers and fisherfolk. It was emphasized by Mr.
Umali that farmers and fisherfolks must be treated with special care and priority
assistance. considering that they are the core to LBP’s mandate.
The salient features of ACEF Lending Program was discussed next, more
particularly on the eligible borrowers, eligible projects and loan purpose.
Eligibility criteria for individual farmer and fisherfolks were mentioned as
follows: individual should present a viable project, he/she should not be an
existing LBP borrower nor he/should have an outstanding loan from other
formal lending institutions for the same project, and he/she should have a
marketable surplus of the project or other confirmed sources for repayment.
Meanwhile, for micro and small enterprises, the requirements are similar only
that each should be duly registered with DTI/SEC and should have no adverse
findings nor have an existing landbank borrower. For farmers’ and fisherfolk
Coops and Associations, each should be duly registered with CDA/SEC/DOLE-
BRW, should be operational for at least 6 months, should have no adverse
findings on the borrower nor have an existing landbank borrower, should entail
a core management team (i.e. manager, cashier, treasurer or equivalent
positions), and lastly, with proven track record.
Loan features, the loanable amount, financing mix, credit facilities, Interest
Rate, Loan Tenor/Repayment Term, Application/Pre-termination fees, Credit
Investigation/Background Investigation, Pre-release requirement, mode of
release, loan restructuring, refinancing, penalty for loan default,
security/collaterals were also tackled by Mr. Umali. With each important factor
to satisfy for the loan, he explained each and made on clarifications. One of
which is, if a particular building is to be made as a security/collateral, the land
will be included as well. Also, as per the processing of the loan, provided that
all basic requirements were satisfied and accomplished, Mr. Umali assured that
applicants in Cavite are given a maximum of five (5) days for the approval of
the loan for amounts not exceeding 300, 000 pesos. Sixth day will be the
signing and release of the funds through LandBank ATM for utmost
convenience. The rest of the applications are given thirty to forty-five (30-45)
days for the processing and approval of the loan application.
Documentary requirements and the ACEF loan form were discussed next. For
farmers’ and fisherfolk cooperatives and associations, the following must be
secured and accomplished for processing of the loan application: loan
application form , General Information Sheet, Photocopy of Certificate of
Registration (for cooperatives, the cert. of registration from the CDA and for
associations, cert of registration from either DOLE-BRW, SEC and other
registering agencies), Bio-data of incumbent officers and board of directors with
ID, board resolution authorizing the coop/association to borrow and designating
authorized signatories, audited financial statement for the last year or latest
interim financial statement for start-up companies, business plan/consolidated
farm plan and budget, and the current year business permit. Mr. Umali
reassured that the applicants shall find the submission of business plan easier
than before since LBP already designed a standard form for all applicants that
will only involve checking and brief answering of some questions relative to the
project to be funded and the application itself. Furthermore, the ACEF loan form
has its English and Filipino version, so that farmers and fisherfolks will only
wish to accomplish the form with the language they are comprehendible and
comfortable with.
Some questions were raised after the discussion. A concern on who shall
“inherit” the outstanding loan in the case of accident or death of the main
applicant was raised; Mr. Umali explained that the spouse who signed in the
loan application of the farmer/fisherfolk applicant is indicated beforehand and
therefore understood to be the inheritor of the loan if that in case, happens.
Another concern was asked on what will the borrower do if he/she is gravely
affected by an unexpected disaster/epidemic such as the onslaught of African
Swine Fever (ASF). Mr. Umali advised that the borrower must immediately go
to the lending center that handled the lending account and consult with the
manager regarding on the feasible options for the situation.