“We used to be at the mercy of traders, now we buy our abaca fiber and our production guild (PG) is slowly earning profit,” says 33 years old Rudy Bendanillo, the leader of the Migsabuwa Farmers Association (MFA) in Purok Salvador, Barangay Rogongon in Iligan City.
“We did not know the standards and grades of abaca fibers before. We mixed the excellent and poor-quality fibers and the traders always pay us low prices because they said our fiber is of bad quality. Now we know how to process and classify our fiber. We could not be cheated by traders anymore,” narrated Barte Egbao, 32 years old and a leading member of the MFA production guild.
Rudy Bendanillo and Barte Egbao are the two leading members of the abaca production guild (PG) in Purok Salvador, Rogongon, Iligan City. Both are members of the Higaunon tribe, the indigenous peoples group owning the sprawling 33,000 hectare ancestral domain whose Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) was approved in 2017. Both Rudy and Barte hail from leading clans in their ancestral domain. Both are abaca farmers.
Abaca (musa textilis nee) is a crop endemic to the Philippines and had been cultivated by indigenous peoples long before the European colonizers set foot in the archipelago. Barangay Rogongon which is one of the barangays within the ancestral domain is one of the abaca-growing villages in northern Mindanao. Local traders based in Iligan City bought abaca fiber of mixed grades from farmers like Rudy and Barte who were not aware of the various prices of the various fiber grades. They only learned about the various grades when they formed themselves into a production guild initiated by the FPG-SEEDIC Project of ECOWEB.
The Ecosystems Work for Essential Benefits (ECOWEB) is a national non-government organization (NGO) based in Iligan City that initiated the project dubbed Formation of Production Guilds for Social Enterprise and Economic Development of Indigenous Communities (FPG-SEEDIC) in 2020. The FPG-SEEDIC project is funded by Bread for the World, the Germany-based development agency of the Protestant Church. The FPG-SEEDIC is implemented in three (3) ancestral domains of indigenous peoples traditionally known as Bayug- Iligan, Dulangan and Bayog-Zamboanga. ECOWEB and Bread for the World fully commit to support the project because it benefits indigenous peoples and abaca fiber is one of the natural fibers that is increasingly used in various industries to replace plastic-based fibers.
“We are very glad that ECOWEB helped us organize into production guilds and not only our husbands were considered members but also us wives,” said Jennifer, the wife of Rudy Bendanillo. “In the past, only our husbands were considered as members even if we also participated in the activities of the organization.”
“Participation of men and women in the project is a built-in strategy of FPG-SEEDIC to ensure that gender concerns are addressed,” explained Renefe Padilla, the gender focal person of the project. “There is gender-based division of labor in abaca farming, especially in the fiber extraction process but in terms of making decisions, it is always the men who make the decision. By encouraging the participation of men and women in the production guilds, the project is creating a gender-fair avenue which we hope could be replicated in their families.”
Production guilds (PG) are groups of 50 farmers from 25 farming households organized into self-help groups of 10 members from 5 farming households proximate to each other. The members of the PG should be an adult man and woman from a farming household producing cash crops like abaca, banana and vegetables. In the Bayug-Iligan ancestral domain, the leading cash crop of the IPs is abaca fiber. FPG-SEEDIC organized PGs to improve abaca fiber production systems to meet international standards and to form indigenous social enterprises (IPSE) that is hoped to liberate them from exploitation.
“We started mobilizing our self-help groups to help each other on our farms. We worked together in our guild from producing planting materials, caring for our farms, production of fiber and now marketing our fiber,” said Cristina Egbao, the wife of Barte. “We used to do farming and fiber extraction only. Buying our own produce and operating our own enterprise is new to us and we are still learning how to operate our business. Thanks to the Financial Management Training conducted by FPG-SEEDIC. We learn the basics of bookkeeping and managing our cash flow.”
IPSEs are social enterprises owned and managed by indigenous peoples. These enterprises aim to buy the products of the members of the production guilds and sell their consolidated produce in order to negotiate better prices and to contribute in the running of the self-governance of the ancestral domain.
Since the MFA production guild started their IPSE in March 2021, they have bought a total of 2,682 kilograms of fibers from their members valued at ₱214,760.00 (€3,703).
ECOWEB was able to form 22 fully organized production guilds and 12 groups preparing themselves to become full PGs. These PGs are composed of 768 farming families with 1,432 members of which 738 are men and 694 are women. Of the 32 organized PGs, only MFA in Purok Salvador has established a full-blown social enterprise while 3 are now in the process of establishing their systems and upgrading their production volume.
As a full-blown PG, MFA is now buying the abaca fiber of its 15 member-families. They sell their fiber to the ECOSSOL buying station on by-grade bases. In the past, they sold their mixed fiber to traders who always priced their fiber based on the lowest grade that is in their bundles of fiber. The traders would then sort the fiber and sell the graded fiber to processors with the good grades commanding high prices.
“I grew up in abaca farming but it was only when I attended the seminar organized by the FPG-SEEDIC Project that I learned about the various grades of fibers and the different prices of each grade,” said Barte Egbao.
“When I first meet the abaca farmers in 2016, they only described their fiber as puti (white), lagom (dark colored) and lagom-lagom (brownish white),” recalled Carino, the program development officer of ECOWEB who handles the training of abaca farmers. “Now I’m glad to hear that they are now talking about standard grades of their fiber as regulated by the Philippine National Standards office.”
The fiber standard system started way back in the 1950s but generations of farmers in the Philippines are not aware of it, only the traders and license classifiers are knowledgeable of the system. Since farmers sell their fiber in mixed grades, traders always price their fiber based on the poorest grade included in the bundles despite the fact that at least half are good grades that commands high prices. ECOWEB’s study conducted in 2015 revealed that the farmers’ lack of knowledge of the fiber grading system deprived the farmers of the opportunity to earn better income because of the ever-increasing prices of abaca fiber in the world market.
“We believe that knowledge is power. Informing the abaca farmers about the nitty-gritty of fiber grades and teaching them how to classify their fiber appropriately is one of the thrusts of the FPG-SEEDIC Project,” explained Kevin Fernan, the Project Manager. “We hope that organizing them into production guilds, providing them with the basic information and helping them establish their social enterprise will ultimately liberate them from poverty and enable them to contribute to the full development and governance of their ancestral domain.”
The lack of knowledge of their product is not uncommon among indigenous peoples in the Philippines. This is largely because only very few government extension workers set foot in their remote villages and literacy is also much lower than the national standards. ECOWEB struggles to bridge this on the belief that better knowledge of their livelihoods could led to improvement of the indigenous peoples communities.
“The ultimate goal of the FPG-SEEDIC is to improve the governance and management of ancestral domains of indigenous peoples,” explained Regina Antequisa, the Executive Director of ECOWEB. “Securing the IP’s rights over their lands cannot guarantee their liberation from poverty. It is by enhancing their livelihoods that economic empowerment of families and communities is assured.”
“We are very proud that we meet the criteria of being an IPSE,” said Rudy. “As a full-blown IPSE, we further qualify for the other services of FPG-SEEDIC. The project had already lent us stripping equipment and decorticating machines. This greatly improved the quality of our fibers.”
The main buyer of their fiber is EcoSustain Solutions, Inc. (EcoSSol), a Class A abaca fiber trader who partnered with ECOWEB in establishing the market for the guild-produced fibers. EcoSSol gives a premium of two pesos for excellent and good grade fibers supplied by production guilds. Through EcoSSol, the fibers produced by the PGs are assured of a stable market and a profit for their IPSE.
Part of the FPG-SEEDIC support is the provision of additional capital to the IPSE on a graduated scheme based on the level of fiber production of the PG. This will also allow the IPSE to buy fibers from non-PG members within their community.
“We hope to see successful abaca farmer-entrepreneurs by the end of the project,” concluded Kevin Fernan | CVA
The Ecosystems Work for Essential Benefits (ECOWEB) is a national non-government organization (NGO) based in Iligan City that initiated the project dubbed Formation of Production Guilds for Social Enterprise and Economic Development of Indigenous Communities (FPG-SEEDIC) in 2020. The FPG-SEEDIC project is funded by Bread for the World, the Germany-based development agency of the Protestant Church. The FPG-SEEDIC is implemented in three (3) ancestral domains of indigenous peoples traditionally known as Bayug- Iligan, Dulangan and Bayog-Zamboanga. ECOWEB and Bread for the World fully commit to support the project because it benefits indigenous peoples and abaca fiber is one of the natural fibers that is increasingly used in various industries to replace plastic-based fibers.
“Participation of men and women in the project is a built-in strategy of FPG-SEEDIC to ensure that gender concerns are addressed,” explained Renefe Padilla, the gender focal person of the project. “There is gender-based division of labor in abaca farming, especially in the fiber extraction process but in terms of making decisions, it is always the men who make the decision. By encouraging the participation of men and women in the production guilds, the project is creating a gender-fair avenue which we hope could be replicated in their families.”
