Support 1000 Philippine Coconut Farmers

We are making a difference when we work together! However, there is still more to be done to strengthen the coconut smallholder farming communities in the Philippines. Due to a lack of institutional assistance for smallholder farmers combined with the impacts of the pandemic, high poverty incidence among coconut farmers remains. Hence, our heartfelt gratitude for your continued support of our mission: championing our coconut farmers to pursue a sustainable livelihood and environment in Mindanao, Philippines.

In just three months since January 2022, a total of $2,630 from your donations helped to further our mission of supporting 1,000 Philippine Coconut farmers, including:

• the hiring of additional staff and conducting capacity-building training to increase coconut production efficiency, wherein they produced 140.31 liters of organic virgin coconut oil, 986 liters of organic coconut honey, 616 liters of organic coconut sap drink, and 64.40 kilograms of organic coconut sugar;
• revising the standard operating procedure (SOP) of organic coconut production to incorporate new knowledge and practices acquired through actual processing to ensure high production quality and efficiency;
• preparing and maintaining the processing facility;
• procuring equipment supplies;
• conducting regular meetings with small coconut farmer organizations representatives from the villages of Libay-libay, Lumatab, Binuangan, and Langgam, all in the province of Davao de Oro, Mindanao, to assist in the development of their organization's Vision, Mission, and Goals and monitor their supply commitment as the source of the organic dehusked coconuts;
• collecting coconut sap that produced 747.19 liters of toddy or Palm wine; and
• producing organic coconut product samples, set production standards, and store retention samples for physical, chemical, and microbiological analyses and shelf-life studies.

Like most initiatives, problems do arise from time to time. The high production cost of the four different organic coconut products has been one of the project's problems. Hence, through a series of collaborative and participatory synergistic efforts of FARMCOOP and farmers, we have cut down production costs by focusing only on Organic Virgin Coconut Oil production. By doing this, we can devote all of our time and resources to sustainably creating the product.

The attached pie chart illustrates how the project funds were utilized. We will continue this cause to fully accomplish the Support 1000 Philippine Coconut Farmer project and work with more coconut farmers in the future.

Thank you for being the catalysts of change for our local farmers, and your support is highly appreciated.

• Project Funding Allocation (PDF)
  

We want to follow up on our quarterly report's project funding allocation.  Attached is a link illustrating how our organization FARMCOOP utilized the $8,332 raised in the following project activities:

•           Beginning construction of the organic processing facility- $4,124 (49%)
•           Staff and sap collector training, gathering coconut materials, and the development of organic coconut processed products $1,615 (19%)
•           Transportation so that coconut farmers can go to training $58 (1%)
•           GlobalGiving Services and Processing- $992 (12%)

The attached link also has a new report on the organic coconut processed products, including organic virgin coconut oit, organic coconut sugar, organic coconut sap drink, and organic coconut honey.

Our coconut community organizer facilitated several participatory meetings with Smallholder Coconut Farmer Organizations to discuss sharing profits from the organic coconut processed products.  For smallholder coconut farmers and their organizations to receive 30% of the profit from organic coconut product sales is unprecedented in the Philippines.  The remaining seventy percent of the profit will be used to co-develop a fair and sustainable farm-to-market process and build the capacity of coconut farmers, including women and youth. 

Our heartfelt thanks to you for helping us co-develop a participatory process that genuinely serves our coconut farmers and their farming communities.

• Coconut Project Funding Allocation and Products (XLSX)

Thank you for your generosity.  Your kind contribution has supported our work with local and indigenous farmers to co-develop a sustainable livelihood while caring for their farm ecosystem and watersheds in Mindanao, Philippines.

 From October 2021 to December 2021, seventy-one individuals such as yourselves have collectively contributed $8,332 to our Support 1,000 Philippine Coconut Farmers Project. 

Thanks to your generous donation, we were able to:

•           Start building the organic coconut processing facility;
•           Gather 1,270 organic coconuts from our partner farmers and collect 560 liters of coconut sap;
•           Train staff in coconut processing and support their work in improving the coconut processing method wherein they produced 15 Liters of organic virgin coconut oil, 59 Liters of coconut honey, and 16 kg of coconut sugar; and
•           Fund the transportation of four farmers representing two smallholder coconut farmer cooperatives and organizations for their training on sap collection, coconut twining, and coconut sugar collection. 

Please see our pie chart below, which illustrates how the project funds were utilized.  We will use the remaining balance of $1,543 to keep up the construction of the organic coconut facility, gather organic coconut materials, and develop the quality of the coconut product processing.  We continue our fundraising to fully accomplish the Support 1000 Philippine Coconut Farmer project so that we can work with more farmers in this project.

We look forward to sharing our progress with you.

 As always, we are grateful for your help in this vital work.