Harnessing the Potential for

Farm Diversification

- Mr. Rene Dalayon,

CEO, FEDCO -

Intercropping Cacao and Banana

Federation of Cooperatives in Mindanao

or FEDCO

Who is FEDCO?

FEDCO or Federation of Cooperatives in

Mindanao have 13 Member Cooperatives

located in Region XI, with around 3,000 Agrarian

Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) and small banana

growers owning 3,000 hectares of land planted

only to export-quality fresh Cavendish Bananas

that are both “highland” and “lowland” varieties.

CURRENT BANANA SITUATION

(CAVENDISH)

China Market: 90% of the total production of the small

farmers is marketed to China.

CHINA MARKET QUASI-BAN TO PHILIPPINE

BANANAS:

1,053,000 boxes of 13.5kg. or 14,215 metric tons

of bananas, being chopped weekly as a result.

How will farmers survive?

FARM DIVERSIFICATION

CACAO BANANA AGRI-ENTERPRISE

DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

The CBAED or Cacao Banana Agri-enterprise Development Project is a partnership with:

CBAED Project is composed of: Training and extension, Post harvest facility, CBEC or Cacao banana Extension Center, Organic input facility, Nursery and cacao seedling production and distribution.

Four CBEC will be put up by FEDCO. Each CBEC will have a cacao nursery, organic input facility and demo farm showing bananas growing together with cacao (Inter-cropping Cacao and Banana).

Why diversify?

Maximization of the land area

Increased productivity

In response to the current decrease in demand of bananas in the market

“…putting our eggs in one basket can be too risky especially for smallholder farmers who cannot afford to lose huge amount of money.”

Cacao-Banana Extension Center

(CBEC)

Intercropping Cacao and Banana

CACAO NURSERY

ORGANIC FACILITY

TRAINING AND EXTENSION

2000 farmers will be trained under the project

We measure our success by

how much we’ve help

improve the lives of our

stakeholders.

Thank you!