Peace and Equity Foundation, together with AsiaDHRRA, co-organized an online forum on September 17 to reflect on the journey of farmer organizations (FOs) and cooperatives in sustaining and scaling their enterprises. AsiaDHRRA presented the FO4A project experience and its challenges in reaching scale, shared summative insights, and synthesized the key lessons. Key takeaways include:

• Small and struggling cooperatives need focused capacity development to address their unique challenges.
• Profitability matters, but only when it also delivers social relevance and benefits to members and communities.
• Scaling up depends on competitiveness, operational efficiency, and market stability.
• Business expansion and external investments must remain aligned with members’ needs.
• Human capital development is critical, anchored on transparent leadership, efficient management, and active engagement of women and youth.
• Building partnerships, including with government programs such as DTI RAPID and DA PRDP, is essential for access to financing, technology, and market opportunities.

In the forum, the need for stronger commitment to empower farmers’ organizations and cooperatives to sustain the push for scaling up with deeper impact and to pursue meaningful partnerships and better policies was emphasized. Ms. Marlene Ramirez, Secretary-General, further elaborated that continued investment in human capital and stronger participation from members as FOs move toward sustainability and resiliency.

We sincerely thank PEF and our partners from the Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative (SIDC), Department of Trade and Industry through the RAPID program, the Department of Agriculture through the Philippine Rural Development Project, as well as the FOs and cooperatives who provided their ground perspectives that gave valuable insights into sustaining farmer enterprises in the value chain.

This exchange contributes to strengthening FOs as they move from survival toward more sustainable and resilient enterprises.