Farmers' will built multi-awarded cooperative.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

February 17, 2002 | Copyright

Byline: Mei Magsino, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

BATANGAS CITY-The will of 59 farmers to have an alternative source of income in 1969 has made their modest undertaking grow into a multi-awarded cooperative with assets worth P75 million and considered as the biggest in the country today.

The founders themselves couldn't believe that the small hut where they started their business is now a three-storey building.

Soro-soro Ibaba Development Cooperative, (SIDC) at Brgy. Soro-soro Ibaba, of this city, now has over 2,170 members, 32 primaries or member cooperatives, and 122 employees.

SIDC has even surpassed the achievements of the best cooperatives in the country. In 1998, Gawad Pitak awarded the cooperative the Best of Hall of Fame for being the top Hall of Famer cooperative for three consecutive years.

"The secret there is very basic. We were honest and we were united. And as we worked hard to maintain and improve the cooperative we started, all our transactions were transparent. There's no room for corruption," said Apolinario Dimaano, 68, one of the founding members who served as treasurer in 1969.

Founders

After seeing a cooperative put up a store in their village, and computing the possible earnings of a Chinese businessman who sold them their animal feeds supply, Victoriano Barte, a farmer, thought of a better income-generating scheme.

"I was the first one he talked to about setting up a cooperative. The idea to set up our own cooperative to supply our animal feeds was brilliant. That means that the Chinese businessman's profit will be ours. And we can use that to grow," Dimaano said. Barte and Apolinario started working on their plan that same day, telling everyone they met about their plan. Luckily, every person they talked with agreed to join.

On March 19, 1969, a week after, 59 members formed their cooperative called Soro-soro Ibaba Farmer's Association with P11,800 as initial capital. The members contributed P200 each to start the business.

At that time, the cooperative got their chicks from Robina farms in Rizal and the feeds from San Miguel.

"Sometimes the truckload of feeds worth P5,000 were delivered here and as treasurer of the group, I had to pay up. The problem was I had only P1,000 in my pocket at that time. What I did to solve the problem was to go around the village and borrow money from friends. And since they knew me as a good person, they lent me the money," Dimaano said.

But when the stakes got higher, Dimaano said all the members helped to raise the money to pay the supplier. "That's when we realized that if we worked together to make this work, we can succeed.

And we did. All it takes is unity, hardwork, and perseverance," he said. They put up a sari-sari store also in Brgy. Soro-soro. That time,it was only a nipa hut.

According to Dimaano, as they saw their cooperative grew, the other cooperatives that came first in the village closed down. "The other cooperatives failed because the officers and members did not pay back their loans. Here at SIDC, we only lend one half of the member's share. That way, we are protected. Fortunately, our members are also honest people who never ran away from their debts," Dimaano added.

Bigger and better

Dimaano admitted that they used to get sneers from their detractors when they started the cooperative.

"Some people would really taunt us because we were all farmers whose highest educational level was 6th grade. That time, only one of us, our auditor Carmen Sopronio, was a commerce graduate. We said, "so what?" We kept on. And we grew bigger and better," Dimaano said.

In 1972, the cooperative changed its name into the Samahang Nayon ng Soro-soro Ibaba, Inc. and started contract-growing hogs to members.

The industry grew along with the cooperative. In 1978, the name was changed again to Soro-soro Ibaba Consumers Cooperative. The name Soro-soro Ibaba Development Cooperative was adopted in 1983 and is still being used now.

From the 59 founding members, the SIDC membership grew to its present 2,170 members.

At present, with 32 primaries, or cooperative members, SIDC has 122 employees and a 9-member board of directors.

From the P11,800 initial capital, SIDC now has P75 million.

"Nobody among the founding members ever thought that what they started out as an alternative source of income could become as big as this," said chairman of the board of directors Angelito Bagui.

In 1987, SIDC started its own feedmill at Soro-soro Karsada, also in this city. The 7,572-square meter feedmill compound now produces an average of 5,000 bags a day of feeds for hogs, poultry and fish. The members of the cooperative buy the feeds, a way of patronizing their own products.

The members have a double advantage in this scheme: they get quality feeds at low price and at the end of the year, get a patronage refund of what they bought from the cooperative.

"In the business of feedmills, the most difficult part to establish is its market," said SIDC general manager Rico Geron, "but in our case, that is not a problem. Our market was already there even before we put up our feedmills."

SIDC's contract growing business, also known in the province as "paiwi" gives the member hog fatteners to grow. The cooperative shoulders the stocks, feeds, veterinary services, and marketing. Here, the cooperative and the contract grower get an equal share of the profit.

Presently, SIDC has 80 heads of hog fatteners, 15 of them breeders. To ensure high quality piglets, SIDC started artificial insemination on March 1998. A cost-efficient way to maintain high-grade boars, this caters to members and associate members of the cooperative.

At present, SIDC has a pig farm in Taysan, Batangas, with 1,500 sows. Complete with first class piggery facilities, the pig farm has also high-grade sows and boars. But hog buyers have become very choosy nowadays.

SIDC started its own hog selling pens with electronic weighing scales and clean facilities to prevent the spread of diseases. This selling pen also speeds up the sales of hogs.

Diversification

SIDC also invested in fish culture. It has now 153 tilapia and bangus fish cages in Agoncillo town.

Here, the fishes are fed with SIDC aqua feeds.

"We learned that from the foot-and-mouth disease in the past. Do not put your eggs in just one basket," Geron said. "We diversified into other businesses that can support us. So, even if one fails, we can't be crippled."

SIDC has also its own expanded credit line, a minimart, convenience store, meat stalls, member-savings, rentals of vehicles and catering equipments, cable TV, and is now exploring the potentials of meat canning.

SIDC's pro-meat now has canned adobo, caldereta, paksiw, humba, and bopis in the market. "I can't say we're the most successful cooperative. But if you look at how SIDC started, from a nipa hut to a three-storey building, a cooperative now worth millions, with so much income and job generating projects, I guess we are successful," Bagui said.

"But we deal with everyday business with the zest of someone just starting." According to Bagui, the cooperative is still looking at the possibilities of investing on a waste water treatment facility, a gas station/auto shop, continuous development of meat processing plant, a diagnostic laboratory for animals, a supermarket, a training center and a rural bank.

"We're planning to put up our rural bank right here in the rural area, where most of them are, and not in the suburbs," he said

Most awarded

SIDC has been Gawad Pitak's favorite from 1993 to 1997 when it got the Best in Profitability award. In 1998, Gawad Pitak awarded the cooperative the Best of Hall of Fame.

SIDC also got the third place as most outstanding small farmers' cooperative in 1989, the best co-op citizen awards in 1996, the most outstanding cooperative and most outstanding Filipino enterprise, also from Gawad Pitak.

In 1998, the UA&P gave SIDC the Outstanding Social Enterprise for People Development award. In 1999, the Cooperatives Development Authority awarded SIDC as the most outstanding agricultural cooperative.