Since end-1980s, the Philippines' Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources had been offering 25-year (renewable once) forest land development joint ventures at thousand-hectare levels to local co-ops and associations. Per DENR terms, 90% of joint venture area is to be reforested and 10% converted to farms and ranches for daily income. 20% of timber harvests go to State.
As of 1990s, several thousand rural multi-purpose co-ops and associations mostly led by NGOs had availed of the scheme. In many cases, foreign NGOs took care of funding for operations. Land areas granted came up to a thousand to 10,000 hectares per joint venture, the total occupying over ten million out of 18 million hectares of mostly uplands. Unfortunately, most of the co-ops floundered or tanked due to lack of sufficient funding, ultra low production for 'daily bread', expensive distances to markets, zero exports, rebel/army clashes and intrigues, unprofessional management, and NGO withdrawal of support. Management by tribal and rural leaders who had no experience in handling large business operations may have been the principal cause of many co-ops' flash-in-the pan histories. Some have been taken over by groups controlled by loggers and politicians.
Conversely, the Philippines' several thousand urban co-ops, all owned by corporate employees and run by professionals, managed to grow into million-peso enterprises. Said co-ops however limited their operations to providing loans to members and micro entrepreneurs (retail stores, tri-wheel transport operators) as well as operating retailing shops for consumer goods, insurance schemes and utility companies' collection agencies. Although many organizers and members of such co-ops possess skills in factory production, large-scale finance, corporate joint venture operations and exports, not one co-op attempted or even targeted large-scale factory or commercial farm/ranch operations. Of course not one has targeted the building of a corporate group thru joint ventures in the elite-style. World-scale production for export markets likewise did not come to the minds of such co-ops' planners.
Our mega co-ops have to learn from all such events. Mega co-op management skills must come in the form of top retired corporate managers who naturally possess extensive business experience and contacts as well as pensions and small 'retirement businesses'. Export markets have to form 80% of target sales from the outset. Startup mega co-ops may avail of at least 3,000-hectares of uplands, 2,700 has. dedicated to agro-forestry and 300 has. for cropping and feedlot-style livestock raising. At feasibility study stage, pre-marketing of agro-forest contract production with 1st World Pacific Rim food companies should be conducted for sure sales right after factory set-up. Joint ventures with 1st World companies have to be arranged during general planning (blogs/websites) stage. Choice of products should be based upon commercial operations for local and export markets. Initial capital should be in P100 million or more levels contributed by a thousand or so employees plus scores of local and foreign CSR companies, State agencies, NGOs, religious organizations, entrepreneurs and social/civic associations. Political action to gain State support has to be conducted by the mega co-ops as Movement, from inter-racial planning stage and onward.
What export-oriented agro-forest product lines are best for our vanguard co-ops? Here is an initial list from which product choices may be made: ethanol from sweet sorghum; organic sugar from sugar cane, sorghum syrup and stevia for organic sweeteners; palm oil; anti-oxidant wines and juices from forest berries; upland rice, corn and forages for livestock feed, adlai & quinoa grains, yacon, pineapple, soursop, moringa, mangosteen, garlic, celery, ginseng, cinnamon, corchorus, noni, acai, etc. as preventives against obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cancers and other ageing-related diseases; coconut, fruit palms and tropical fruits for fresh, dehydrated and candied fruits; fruity sweets and snacks sweetened with stevia (diabetes preventive); honey, cut-flowers and orchids; fibers for paper and cloth, bio-chemicals, floor parquets, activated charcoal, bamboo and rattan furniture, terrariums, aquariums and breeding of pet birds. Livestock feedlot products include organic livestock feeds, refrigerated organic meats (pork, chicken, beef, lamb, turkey), sausages, flavored barbecues, hams, boiled quail and duck eggs, leather products from skins of goats, cattle, snake and crocodile, etc.
Chosen raw material lines are to be simultaneously produced and processed by factories within agro-forest areas as joint ventures between the co-op and local or foreign companies. Joint venture terms include capital sharing, crop production and processing, livestock breeding and grow out (half of offspring to co-op), production licensing, and franchising. For joint venture crop contracting with foreign companies, all raw materials are to be grown and provided by the agro-forest at agreed-upon prices. The co-op may budget from P5 million to P10 million per local or foreign joint venture as its share in capital at 60-40 capital sharing (co-ops more). Loans from State banks (out of billion-dollar 10-year bonds sold to climate change Funds, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and 1st World states' Aid Funds) and foreign joint ventures' banks for importing machinery should provide 70-80% of production facilities' cost.
High-budget projects such as ethanol distilleries, palm oil mills, sorghum syrup factories and organic sugar mills will require 20 to 50 mega co-op agro-forest clusters to contribute P10 million each in capital. Foreign CSR companies may contribute 40% of capital. Several funding institutions such as State banks, foreign Aid agencies, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and climate change Funds should provide for 70-80% of project cost. Every funding institution may lend a few million dollars each to scores of mega co-ops to spread out the risk. Groups of Funds may set up joint retail lending outlets in the Philippines to handle costly nitty-gritty details. Financial clustering by mega co-ops and foreign joint venture companies should build rural agro-forest processing factories worth billions of pesos per project.
Mega co-op clustering should also apply to local and export marketing. Twenty to fifty mega co-ops may set up one marketing company for local/export sales and market research, including investment and partnering with hundreds of local/foreign companies to set up ASEAN Festival malls and Filipino expats' marketing outfits in over 100 countries.
Why the large-scale and export-oriented schemes? Firstly, Philippine mega co-ops have to create good jobs for over 66 million local bottom poor. Secondly, every co-op is owned by a thousand or so employees plus scores of corporations and organizations, all expecting above-market dividends which only corporate groups can provide. Thirdly, all the co-ops have to engage in massive absorption of greenhouse gases considering humanity's need to end global warming to prevent human extinction and planetary ruin before year 2100, as predicted by scientists. The described funding schemes therefore provide 'race track' methods and systems to address such urgent 'all for humanity' needs. Philippine mega co-ops' success should thence serve as models which the rest of the 3rd World countries and 1st World joint venture partners may clone. Further expansions toward more green product lines on the same fast-track basis should enable humanity to win in the race against time to save itself and its home planet!
As of 1990s, several thousand rural multi-purpose co-ops and associations mostly led by NGOs had availed of the scheme. In many cases, foreign NGOs took care of funding for operations. Land areas granted came up to a thousand to 10,000 hectares per joint venture, the total occupying over ten million out of 18 million hectares of mostly uplands. Unfortunately, most of the co-ops floundered or tanked due to lack of sufficient funding, ultra low production for 'daily bread', expensive distances to markets, zero exports, rebel/army clashes and intrigues, unprofessional management, and NGO withdrawal of support. Management by tribal and rural leaders who had no experience in handling large business operations may have been the principal cause of many co-ops' flash-in-the pan histories. Some have been taken over by groups controlled by loggers and politicians.
Conversely, the Philippines' several thousand urban co-ops, all owned by corporate employees and run by professionals, managed to grow into million-peso enterprises. Said co-ops however limited their operations to providing loans to members and micro entrepreneurs (retail stores, tri-wheel transport operators) as well as operating retailing shops for consumer goods, insurance schemes and utility companies' collection agencies. Although many organizers and members of such co-ops possess skills in factory production, large-scale finance, corporate joint venture operations and exports, not one co-op attempted or even targeted large-scale factory or commercial farm/ranch operations. Of course not one has targeted the building of a corporate group thru joint ventures in the elite-style. World-scale production for export markets likewise did not come to the minds of such co-ops' planners.
Our mega co-ops have to learn from all such events. Mega co-op management skills must come in the form of top retired corporate managers who naturally possess extensive business experience and contacts as well as pensions and small 'retirement businesses'. Export markets have to form 80% of target sales from the outset. Startup mega co-ops may avail of at least 3,000-hectares of uplands, 2,700 has. dedicated to agro-forestry and 300 has. for cropping and feedlot-style livestock raising. At feasibility study stage, pre-marketing of agro-forest contract production with 1st World Pacific Rim food companies should be conducted for sure sales right after factory set-up. Joint ventures with 1st World companies have to be arranged during general planning (blogs/websites) stage. Choice of products should be based upon commercial operations for local and export markets. Initial capital should be in P100 million or more levels contributed by a thousand or so employees plus scores of local and foreign CSR companies, State agencies, NGOs, religious organizations, entrepreneurs and social/civic associations. Political action to gain State support has to be conducted by the mega co-ops as Movement, from inter-racial planning stage and onward.
What export-oriented agro-forest product lines are best for our vanguard co-ops? Here is an initial list from which product choices may be made: ethanol from sweet sorghum; organic sugar from sugar cane, sorghum syrup and stevia for organic sweeteners; palm oil; anti-oxidant wines and juices from forest berries; upland rice, corn and forages for livestock feed, adlai & quinoa grains, yacon, pineapple, soursop, moringa, mangosteen, garlic, celery, ginseng, cinnamon, corchorus, noni, acai, etc. as preventives against obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cancers and other ageing-related diseases; coconut, fruit palms and tropical fruits for fresh, dehydrated and candied fruits; fruity sweets and snacks sweetened with stevia (diabetes preventive); honey, cut-flowers and orchids; fibers for paper and cloth, bio-chemicals, floor parquets, activated charcoal, bamboo and rattan furniture, terrariums, aquariums and breeding of pet birds. Livestock feedlot products include organic livestock feeds, refrigerated organic meats (pork, chicken, beef, lamb, turkey), sausages, flavored barbecues, hams, boiled quail and duck eggs, leather products from skins of goats, cattle, snake and crocodile, etc.
Chosen raw material lines are to be simultaneously produced and processed by factories within agro-forest areas as joint ventures between the co-op and local or foreign companies. Joint venture terms include capital sharing, crop production and processing, livestock breeding and grow out (half of offspring to co-op), production licensing, and franchising. For joint venture crop contracting with foreign companies, all raw materials are to be grown and provided by the agro-forest at agreed-upon prices. The co-op may budget from P5 million to P10 million per local or foreign joint venture as its share in capital at 60-40 capital sharing (co-ops more). Loans from State banks (out of billion-dollar 10-year bonds sold to climate change Funds, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and 1st World states' Aid Funds) and foreign joint ventures' banks for importing machinery should provide 70-80% of production facilities' cost.
High-budget projects such as ethanol distilleries, palm oil mills, sorghum syrup factories and organic sugar mills will require 20 to 50 mega co-op agro-forest clusters to contribute P10 million each in capital. Foreign CSR companies may contribute 40% of capital. Several funding institutions such as State banks, foreign Aid agencies, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and climate change Funds should provide for 70-80% of project cost. Every funding institution may lend a few million dollars each to scores of mega co-ops to spread out the risk. Groups of Funds may set up joint retail lending outlets in the Philippines to handle costly nitty-gritty details. Financial clustering by mega co-ops and foreign joint venture companies should build rural agro-forest processing factories worth billions of pesos per project.
Mega co-op clustering should also apply to local and export marketing. Twenty to fifty mega co-ops may set up one marketing company for local/export sales and market research, including investment and partnering with hundreds of local/foreign companies to set up ASEAN Festival malls and Filipino expats' marketing outfits in over 100 countries.
Why the large-scale and export-oriented schemes? Firstly, Philippine mega co-ops have to create good jobs for over 66 million local bottom poor. Secondly, every co-op is owned by a thousand or so employees plus scores of corporations and organizations, all expecting above-market dividends which only corporate groups can provide. Thirdly, all the co-ops have to engage in massive absorption of greenhouse gases considering humanity's need to end global warming to prevent human extinction and planetary ruin before year 2100, as predicted by scientists. The described funding schemes therefore provide 'race track' methods and systems to address such urgent 'all for humanity' needs. Philippine mega co-ops' success should thence serve as models which the rest of the 3rd World countries and 1st World joint venture partners may clone. Further expansions toward more green product lines on the same fast-track basis should enable humanity to win in the race against time to save itself and its home planet!
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