During the time of then President Cory Aquino, I went to visit one of the successful agricultural cooperatives in Tarlac. I arranged an interview with Mr. Bernabe Buscayno who was then responsible for making the said cooperative grow from a small one into one of the biggest in Central Luzon.
From what I saw, it seemed the farmer-members of the said cooperative were more than happy that such an idea came about. According to them, this enabled them to get rid of the middle men who made their lives miserable that time.
The most important thing that the cooperative did to the farmers was that they no longer scout for buyers because the cooperative buys their produce at a reasonable price. If other farmers’ groups nationwide can emulate what the Tarlac cooperative did, then perhaps, they can at least lessen their woes on rice planting and production.
It is also one way of killing the unscrupulous traders from taking advantage of the situation. Perhaps, what the cooperatives should do is to avail to members fertilizers, seeds and marketing services for their farm produce. This is where the government financial institutions can come in to help by pumping resources to the said cooperatives to sustain their operations.
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