In 1961, as the war-ravaged South Korea was building its agriculture and economy from the ashes of the Peninsular Conflict, the young democratic government led the organisation of farmers and fisher folks cooperatives into a group called Nonghyup or the National Agriculture Cooperatives Federation.
Today, 56 years later, Nonghyup has over 3,300 member cooperatives and virtually controls all aspects of South Korean agriculture, from production to marketing, from financing to banking, from logistics to insurance with a total net worth of $270-billion or P13.5-trillion.
Nonghyup’s operations include a financial holding company which offers diverse financial services such as deposits, loans credit cards, insurance, foreign exchange, and securities and a marketing holding company which handles the marketing and supply of agricultural and livestock products through advanced expertise and efficient product distribution.
In 2011, the annual revenue of Nonghyup was placed at $31.6-billion or P1.58-trillion, almost half of the total national budget of the Philippine government.
The South Korean Farmers Cooperatives Federation has become so powerful that they could dictate government policies on agriculture and even tilt the political balance in the country.
Indeed, there are observations that Nonghyup has transformed into an organisation of the agricultural elites of South Korea and is also plagued by corruption but the undeniable fact is that if farmers and fisher folks band themselves, they become the masters of their fate and the captains of their own destiny.
This is so unlike the situation of the Filipino farmers and fisher folks in a country whose lives and income earning capacity are determined by traders and middlemen.
In fact, the situation is so pathetic that the traders and middlemen dictate how much would be the buying price of the farmers produce and how much would be the selling price of the agricultural goods in the market.
There are three things that I am looking at to address this problem and liberate the Filipino agricultural producer from the clutches of the middlemen and traders.
First would be to copy the Nonghyup model which initiated the federation of all farmers and fisher folks cooperatives and associations into one umbrella organisation.
This is quite a difficult task given the propensity of Filipinos to form small groups and refuse to be drawn into a bigger group where he loses power and voice.
Second, the easy access credit program for farmers and fisher folks coursed through their cooperatives or associations is a must.
This proposal has been met by unrealistic opposition from our economic managers who say that there are existing loaning programs from government institutions without even realising that the tedious banking requirements actually push the farmers to the waiting arms of the loan sharks who are the ones accessing the agricultural credit programs.
I know of one rice trader who goes to the government banks at the start of the harvest season to borrow money to buy farmers produce and pays the loan back after harvest with hefty profits in his pockets.
Third, a direct marketing system should be established and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries through the Agricultural Marketing Division is working on this.
Initially, the DAF linked the onion and garlic farmers to institutional buyers and the TienDA Farmers Outlet is now being held as a test run on how government could assist farmers and fisher folks in directly marketing their products.
This will be a very difficult task and there will be resistance from many interest groups, especially those who are making a killing in the trading and marketing of agricultural products, including smugglers and importers whose operations will be affected.
It will be a tough battle but we have to wage it.
I may not even be able to accomplish this in my term as Secretary of Agriculture and under the Presidency of Rody Duterte.
But I promise the Filipino farmers and consumers that I will start building an institutionalised program that would organise farmers into a solid group, provide easy access credit and devise a market system where the farmers and fisher folks will be in control.
I pray to God we will succeed.
(First three photos show Nonghyup headquarters, bank and supermarket while the last three photos show how Filipino agricultural products are sold in wet markets. All photos downloaded from public websites.)
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