THE Department of Agriculture (DA)-Central Luzon conducted training for farmer cooperatives from February 23 to 24, 2022 in the province of Bataan.

The training included the preparation of Business Plan, Project Proposal, and Cluster Development Plan for the identified Farmers’ Cooperative and Associations (FCA).

In August 2020, the Department of Agriculture (DA) started implementing the Farm and Fisheries Clustering and Consolidation (F2C2) Program in compliance with the DA Administrative Order No. 27 issued by Secretary William Dar.

This aims to advance the condition of small farmers and fisheries by encouraging them to adopt the strategy of clustering and consolidation of their production, processing, and marketing activities as community business enterprises, including pooling of assets, labor, and other resources to effectively achieve and benefits from economies of scale in commodity production.

It also seeks to forge stronger linkages between farm producers and market or bigger value chain and improve bargaining and market power of primary farm producers.

In addition, F2C2 Focal Person Eduviges Pelayo stated that this activity will help to accelerate the transformation of the Philippines’ agriculture towards a modern and industrialized sector with empowered and prosperous farmers and fisherfolk through the ONE DA Reform agenda.