THE POPULAR SONG ?New York, New York? has a well-known line: ?If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere.?
Sulu is not New York, but there is something similar about the two places: They are both tough areas to live in. On Oct. 27, at the annual meeting of the Management Association of the Philippines-AgriBusiness Countryside and Development Foundation Inc. (MAP-ABCDF), the question was asked: ?Can a group of experienced Makati-based agribusiness executives contribute anything substantial to far-away Sulu??
Background
The MAP-ABDCF website (www.map-abcdf.com.ph) reveals a group of people that banded together ?to promote agribusiness and countryside development via pertinent sciences and technologies.?
They have committed to ?freely give personal time and effort as individual contributions toward the successful accomplishment of the foundation?s goals.?
A key MAP-ABCDF activity is ?to conduct weekly forums to secure up-to-date information and to disseminate relevant education? (to) derive take home and useful value.? In addition, they commit ?to continue our outreach
?Seniorversity? program that brings volunteer resources and talents out of Makati and to the rural areas for the appropriate transfer of technology and management discipline.?
The Sulu experience
Has MAP-ABCDF been fulfilling its mission? In last Tuesday?s meeting, two guests from Sulu answered this question. They were Princess Lala Ellardo, great granddaughter of the Sulu Sultan when Sulu was annexed to Philippine territory, and her Makati-based Sulu colleague, Fe Gagano. They said that in seven short months, the MAP-ABCDF had already made a significant impact in Sulu.
Gagano narrates what happened: ?Princess Lala inherited the leadership of a large group of Sulu Muslims under a sub-group of the Sulu Sultan?s original fiefdom. She now felt it was her responsibility to improve their lives. But the lands under her grew mostly cassava and coffee using traditional inefficient technology. In addition, there was no ready market with the resulting low prices.?
In April 2009, Gagano brought Princess Lala to San Miguel Corp. for possible sub-contract cassava arrangements. This yielded beneficial results. SMC now provides the technical assistance and the guaranteed market. But in an effort to maximize Lala?s service to her people, she and Gagano went to the open weekly MAP-ABCDF forum they had heard so much about. Since that first time, either of them has consistently been present at all the later forums.
Profitable applications
?Why not?? Gagano asked. ?The weekly topics are very practical for employment generation and revenue enhancement. What is even more beneficial are the people I meet from different disciplines who help us with our current or potential projects for Sulu.?
She gives two examples. After a talk on the value added from virgin coconut oil that is not exploited properly by the Sulu coconut farmers, she approached businessman-inventor Julius Labrador. Labrador provided her a low-cost P27,000 machine that processes virgin coconut oil from 300 coconuts a day with a payback of less than a year.
This was found so successful in Sulu that 10 more units have already been ordered. With increased sanitation and better quality control, the virgin coconut oil they currently produce may soon pass the stringent standards for export.
Already, another MAP-ABCDF member and former agribusiness multinational executive Sergio Montinola has said he would purchase their virgin coconut oil for undernourished children.
Another example is Lala?s specialty coffee using only red beans from Sulu. At present, this fetches a low market price because it is sold only in Sulu without any packaging. After talking to Rene Gayo, vice president of the Foundation for People Development, Lala now has an agreement that she will sell the coffee to Gayo, who will then take care of packaging, labeling and marketing to high-value coffee outlets here and possibly abroad.
These two examples are only additions to the future prospect of diversified vegetable production inspired by the MAP-ABCDF field visit to Rep. Proceso Alcala?s projects in Sariyaya, Quezon; the concept of marketing Sulu as a certified organic production province (the Sulu Muslims have a general aversion to chemical fertilizers) for the international market; and the adoption of new technologies for the products that Sulu now produces in traditional and inefficient ways.
Conclusion
MAP-ABCDF seems to be living up to its mission of bringing agribusiness expertise and technology to the countryside. For more information, call Gagano at 0915 4459071 or the MAP-ABCDF secretariat?s Bernadette Yap at 02-8110090. Better yet, come to the open weekly forum every Tuesday. As the song ?New York, New York? goes, if MAP-ABCDF made it in Sulu, maybe it can make it anywhere.
(The author is chair of Agriwatch, former secretary for presidential flagship programs and projects. For inquiries, e-mail agriwatchphil@yahoo.com or telefax (02) 8522112)
