GROW Coop and Agriterra facilitate Coop to Coop Trade as a COVID 19 emergency response

THE PHILIPPINES -The current emergency situation has placed the food production or distribution (agri-products) to a standstill. As a result of the community quarantines, local area lockdowns and the apprehension of people to travel, farmer producers in the provinces can not sell their products while consumers in key cities are having a hard time getting enough food supplies. Aside from the loss of income and the hardship this brings to households in the cities, this problem will escalate to a bigger scarcity of food should the farmers do not plant for the next season.

Agriterra and GROW Coop, a 2.5 year programme in the Philippines funded by USAID, aims to address this problem by working with cooperatives and their network of producer and marketing cooperatives and making coop to coop trade happen. Under this initiative they will bring together cooperatives and other Civil Society Organizations that have similar initiatives to help solve the problems specific to markets for farmer producer groups and the food supply for key cities.

Agriterra will support cooperatives address or overcome these hurdles and bottlenecks along their supply chains as a result of emergency situation:

• Support additional personnel needed to develop, manage and maintain the activities at the farmers’ consolidation areas as well as the redistribution centers in selected cities
• Cover costs for additional logistics expense related to activities at the consolidation areas, production sites and redistribution centers in key cities
• Cover costs related to upgrades needed for the cooperative to comply with the requirements of a possible tech solution to the current situation
• Provide seed money, when needed, to stimulate and facilitate the trading activities between producer coops and marketing coops   

Agriterra will also train the cooperative that will anchor the consolidation of food supply products from the producers. The cooperative will be strengthened to become a ”big brother” or a Local Resource Organization to micro and small cooperatives it works with so that these coop to coop trade arrangements will be sustained even after the emergency situation has lapsed.

The global Agriterra COVID 19 Helpdesk facilitates cooperatives and farmer organisations in continuing their business.