presented by Mr. Gomer Tumbali during the AFNR Symposium held last September 30, 2015 in Makati City

1. Gomer G.Tumbali
2015 National Agriculture, Fishery and
Natural Resources Extension Symposium
Asian Institute of Management
29 September 2015

2. Why Focus Extension
Service to Smallholder
Farmers?

3.  7.9 million prime agricultural land in the
Philippines are owned by smallholders as a
result of agrarian reform; they can provide
the quality and quantity agricultural produce
needed by the market
- DARAnnual Report

4.  For every dollar invested in smallholder
agriculture, the yield doubles, compared with
other sectors.
- World Bank and IFAD,
Building InclusiveValue Chain (2008)

5.  Family farming/smallholder farming has been
a key factor in economic development and
structural transformation.
- High Level Panel of Experts
On Food Security and Nutrition (2013)

6.  Small-scale farming is more efficient, and has
the ability to double food production in less
than a decade.
- Olivier de Schutter,
“Agroecology and the Right to Food” (2010)

7.  FBS as an extension scheme is well
positioned to contribute to mitigating the
negative effects to the smallholders of the
open markets brought about by
globalization, especially by the ASEAN
Economic Community

8.  Issues related to food and agriculture are
comprehensively integrated among the 17 post-
2015 Sustainable Development Goals.
 SDG1, End poverty, includes targets related to
social protection, land rights and resilience
 SDG2 is dedicated to ending hunger, improving
food security and nutrition, and promoting
sustainable agriculture.

9.  a new extension program designed to help
farmers build knowledge, enhance skills, and
adjust attitudes to make their farms more
profitable by learning about business.
 inspired by the Farmer Field School (FFS)

10.  Recognizes the farmers’ knowledge and
valuable experiences.
 Field-oriented and farmer-centered.
 Employs learning by doing.
 Uses discovery-based learning.
 Interactive and responsive

11.  focused on the transition of the farmers
towards farm business management and
market-oriented farming
 a venue that brings like-minded farmers
together to develop their entrepreneurial
skills and competencies
 guided by a set of training materials
contained in a 25-session business-oriented
‘curriculum’ contained in a manual that was
adopted to the Philippine setting

12.  Understanding and applying basic concepts
of business in farming
 Entrepreneurial competencies that farmers
should posses to make farming profitable,
cost and return analysis, and computing
break-even yield and price as guide for
pricing
 Understanding marketing, markets,
production-marketing chain and surveying
market demands

13.  Evaluating technical feasibility and
availability of physical and power inputs
 Developing vision and goal for the farm
business
 Farm business
 Evaluating the business after the season
 Replanning for the next season.

14.  Not all farmers can be transformed into
entrepreneurs.

15. All about the MARKET.
- PARTNERSHIPWITH MARKETINGGROUPS
- PENETRATING NEW MARKETS

16.  From Jan 2015 to July, 2015, about 125Tons
of fresh vegetables were traded, amounting
to Php 3.175M, by the cluster of lead farmer-
graduates who enlisted in the partnership;
 With an average premium of 6 Php/kg, this
translates to approx. Php 750,000 in
additional income for the partner farmers.
 Php 60,355 additional income was generated
by the farmers’ cooperative, as the
consolidator of the agricultural produce.

17.  Budget allocation of MLGUs for the conduct
of critical activities within the FBS curriculum.
 Extension workers assigned as FBS
facilitators from the Office of the Municipal
Agriculturist should be freed from hectic
schedule to attend to the market linkage;
more trained personnel of the OMA on the
FBS
 Increasing personnel to lead the conduct of
market assistance activities.

18.  Immediate hiring of additional personnel for
the unit in charge of marketing assistance to
farmers.
 Enhancing the capacities of extension
personnel in market-oriented extension..
 Maintaining the quality of training of
facilitator-extension providers at the field
level.

19.  ATI has started the national implementation
in 2014
 DAR started pilot implementation in the 2nd
quarter of 2015

20.  The local chief executives and agricultural
program administrators in the pilot areas
have embraced the FBS as an innovative
extension modality to improve the lives of
small farmers in their jurisdictions.
 The FBS facilitators committed their time,
effort and resources toward successfully
managing their respective schools.

21.  The farmer-participants felt they truly had a
stake in the conduct of the FBs in their
communities as it put a premium on their
personal farming experiences.
 The FBS has empowered these farmers who
now hold themselves in higher esteem.They
are no longer “just” farmers — they are
farmer-entrepreneurs.

22. Thank you.