The Supercoop

MANILA: For many years, I have been thinking of a super legacy, a huge-impact project that I can initiate with only me and my laptop and the Internet, and today I have it: The Supercoop. Yes, the co-op, coop, co-operative, cooperative; I just reinvented it.

As I write this, the thing that has just inspired me to do it is the essay I uploaded a few minutes ago to another blog, "Farmer's Mal-Practice in the Philippines" (12 December 2015, Journalism For Science. blogspot.com). Specifically, the inspiration came from "Frank H's Table of Scientist's Technologies and Farmer's Practice in Rice Farming in the Philippines" where I listed 13 bad habits of Filipino farmers. Rereading the list, I had the insight that I might as well start a new blog and write a new book to help save the farmers from themselves.

Did I say farmer's mal-practice? Yes, what farmers have been and still are doing wrong, some 13 of them, which I discussed in that essay. I will present them here in a different manner so that it will fit into my idea of The Supercoop.

Filipino Farmer's Mal-Practices	Ideal Supercoop's Role & Farmer's Work
Buys bag of hybrid seeds, but does not make sure it's certified.	(1) Coop buys & sell hybrid seeds, making sure it's certified.
No soil test.	(2) Coop does the Minus One-Element Technique (MOET) test for farmers.
Over-fertilize.	(3) Farmer hires via coop people to do micro-dosing, saving fertilizer, cost.
Burn rice straw on the field before planting.	(4) Stop burning. Coop produces good compost for farmers to apply.
Ignore System of Rice Intensification (SRI).	(5)Coop shows farmers SRI pays more and is climate change-friendly.
Transplant old rice seedlings.	(6) Coop shows transplant at 14 days, seedlings recover quickly.
Plant seedlings random, not square.	(7) Farmer hires via coop people to do square planting.
Spray weedicide.	(8) Farmer hires via coop people to do non-chemical weeding.
Ignore integrated pest management (IPM).	(9) Coop makes sure that farmer follows IPM guidelines.
Borrow financing from usurer.	(10) Borrow financing from coop.
Keep field flooded.	(11) Coop does for farmer alternate wet & dry (AWD) irrigation.
Dry grains a little.	(12) Coop dries farmer's grains properly to 14% moisture.
Sell to a middleman.	(13) Coop looks for direct buyers.

 The Supercoop needs investors, the government first, and then the private sector. We are talking here of emancipating the poor from poverty, not simply alleviating poverty or reducing the burden of being poor and taken advantage of.

Let me explain the table entries above.

(1)     Supercoop takes care of the hybrid seeds. The coop becomes the input supplier of all its members, especially the farmers. At affordable rates, all farmers will be able to finance their modern farming according to the principles of conservation agriculture. Hybrid seeds are expensive, so the coop will provide seeds on easy cash or easy loans. It might even become the seed producer itself.

(2)     Supercoop does the soil test for everyone. The soil test is necessary all the time before any planting of any crop. PhilRice's Minus One-Element Technique (MOET) soil test provides definite data on how much of the plant nutrients are needed to be resupplied after every cropping. The MOET will recommend the amounts for any or all of these 6 nutrients: copper, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, and zinc. Plants need more than just NPK to grow well.

(3)     Supercoop does the fertilizing. Filipino farmers apply at least 10 bags of commercial fertilizer to a hectare. If they practice micro-dosing, applying only a 3-finger pinch to every planted hill, they can save the cost of 9 bags of fertilizer out of 10! But micro-dosing is laborious, so the coop will simply hire people to do the work and charge it to the farmer.

(4)     Supercoop produces compost. Instead of burning the straw, the coop will incorporate it with the soil in a farmer's field. Instead of chemical fertilizers, the coop will produce affordable vermicompost for everyone. 

(5)     Supercoop does the SRI. The SRI promises a very high yield but, as a system of planting rice, it is labor-intensive and farmers hate to do manual labor, such as taking very careful steps that a seedling is planted without injury into a pre-prepared hole on top of the soil. And Filipino farmers are not used to planting a field without cultivating it first; they will look lazy, or crazy.

(6)     Supercoop hires transplanters. Without exception, Filipino farmers delay their transplanting until the seedlings are about 1 month old, because they are taller and therefore easier to handle in bulk. At that age, the transplants will suffer the shock of being uprooted from the seedbed and then inserted into holes in the field. The shock delays recovery and therefore maturity, even yield. The 2-week old seedlings or younger are the best to transplant, with minimal shock.

(7)     Supercoop hires square planters. Farmers don't like being bothered by using planting frames or strings that dictate the exact position of each seedling to be transplanted. The coop can hire square planters and simply charge the farmer for their labor.

(8)     Supercoop hires weeders for the farmer. The coop can hire people to do the manual or mechanical weeding of a farmer's field, rewarding them charged to the owner of the farm.

(9)     Supercoop coordinates IPM of farmers. Integrated pest management allows natural enemies to multiply so that they can defeat the pests without the farmer resorting to spraying deadly chemicals. Farmers resort to spraying because it is most convenient and you can see the effect almost immediately.

(10) Supercoop is ready for loans anytime. Very importantly, the coop will provide any form or type of loan to the farmer for the needs of his farming and his family. The farmer cannot live with farm loans alone; he must also enjoy family loans, for the needs of his loved ones, not to mention their wants.

(11) Supercoop hires out worker to do AWD. For the farmer, alternate wet & dry irrigation is messy and laborious, so the coop will hire someone to do it for him. This will save water and cost of farming.

(12) Supercoop takes care of postharvest handling. The farmer can hire a harvester himself, but he will need help not only in drying the grains but also in storing them, for which the coop will maintain a warehouse and processing area, including even a rice mill.

(13) Supercoop as marketing arm. Marketing by the coop will be aggressive, looking for big direct consumers for a guaranteed volume of rice every month. The farmers must be faithful in carrying out their part of the contract in order to maintain the loyalty of consumers. Where quality of the rice is concerned, the coop can demand from the farmer members different quality classes for different consumers. Export is another possibility with volume and adequate financial muscle to flex. The Supercoop will be able to do that. 

That is the cooperative reinvented. The Supercoop will have multiplier effects not only on the coop members but on the community at large. It will ensure productivity and profitability, after which we can all dream of sustainability.