Improve the services provided to family farmer by their cooperatives and their business environment

20 Professionalized Family Farming Cooperatives with Viable Structures Delivering Efficient Sustainable Agriculture Production and Business Development Services to Members and Enabling Farmer-Friendly Policy Environment together with their Federations in 13 Provinces in the Philippines The project is based on the finding that many of the causes that create poverty and food insecurity in the Philippines could have been addressed if farmers had been better and broadly organized as agricultural cooperatives, professionally managed and democratically governed. Farmers can improve production, enlarge their market access, and access to various government programs where these agricultural cooperatives exist and provide full value chain services to members. The program will focus its activities on supporting 17 PAKISAMA member cooperatives and 6 AGRICOOPH member cooperatives (3 with double membership) while strengthening their capacity to serve member organizations. Their interventions will facilitate the strengthening of the cooperatives' governance, the increase in quality and quantity of their members' production and processing activities, leading to greater access to market. Agroecological innovations will improve soil fertility, reduce the laboriousness of farm work and increase the diversity of farm production. It will also contribute to the establishment of synergies between agricultural cooperatives and the cooperatives sector and facilitate the recognition of their voice in the decision-making processes of government agencies mandated to serve farmers. By all these means, the program is aiming at the generation of greater incomes for farmers, as well as a greater recognition of the key role of cooperatives in the economic development of rural areas. It will help establish a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable alliance of stakeholders involved in commodities value chains to address farmers' poverty and environmental, social, and economic development goals. At the center of this project is the capacity building of the farmers themselves and their cooperatives to become effective players and negotiators with private and public stakeholders involved in production, manufacturing, and marketing of agriculture commodities.