Farmer Coop trains on Agro-Enterprise Clustering Approach (AECA)

The Agro-Enterprise Clustering Apaproach (AECA) Phase 1 program for farmers, fisherfolk, farmer organizations, cooperatives, and associations aims to organize and gather information for business plan preparation and cluster groups of farmers for data gathering. The training was recently held at EON Centennial, Iloilo City.

Cluster farming is an economic approach designed for small, limited-resource, and socially disadvantaged farmers to increase productivity, reduce risk, and improve community growth by organizing smallholder farmers into collective units through a participatory approach. Farmers can enhance their productivity, competitiveness, and sustainability with proper training and embracing the cluster approach. It is a source of growth and can help alleviate poverty.

The Iloilo cluster comprises the Iloilo Pototan Organic Practitioners Association, Tubungan Vegetable Producers Association, Buga Farmers Association, Camalongo Farmers Association, and Pulao Multi-Purpose Farmers Association. The Sandona Development Cooperative and Aklan Provincial Organic Producers Association are joining from the province of Aklan.

The presentation of the agricultural value chain using Porter’s model was explained to the participants, covering the flow of support services and primary activities such as logistics, operations, harvesting, sorting, and packaging. “Marketing flow and sales, as well as pricing until delivery, are important in AECA training. The operations from farmers to traders, processors to consumers, and the roles played are more beneficial to the farmers when inclusive,” explained Clark Melendres, DA Senior Agriculturist.

Phase 1 of AECA training focuses on forming the working group and the major activities of each cluster member. The formulation of a production module, which includes materials used, production cost, yield level, and income, as well as a cluster supply plan, was also discussed during the training. Good practices that serve as a guide to farmers were also addressed. In Phase 2, implementation and action planning were conveyed by the F2C2 team led by James Daniel Gregori, Enterprise Development and Marketing Specialist, and Dina Gaugano, DA Project Development Officer. #JNCapaciete (DA6/RAFIS)