There was a lot of head nodding from a group of eight Filipinos as they toured the Federated Co-operative Ltd. feed mill in Saskatoon on Sept. 29.
Some parts of the operation were familiar to members of the Sorosoro Ibaba Development Co-operative, or SIDC, an agricultural co-op in the Philippines. It runs a varied business that includes a feed mill, retail store and slaughtering and meat processing arm. Most of its 7,000 members raise pigs.
The group visited Saskatchewan for three weeks last month as the most recent part of its five year relationship with the Canadian Co-operative Association. The CCA had helped SIDC members improve their hog management, particularly in handling wastes.
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A number of SIDC members use septic tanks that decompose the waste into fertilizer for vegetable production. They have expanded their small hog farms by growing organic vegetables such as lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes and bell peppers. In Saskatchewan, they were interested in seeing organic farms.
Tour member Josie Manalo said they wanted to learn more about Canadian co-ops and technologies for handling manure. She said legislation in the Philippines has become more restrictive about the environment.
“We used to spread manure on the land, but we’ve started to contain it. The co-op has a biogas digester given to us by the U.K. embassy.”
She said prairie farmers impressed the Filipino visitors.
“We saw how hard you work. Even alone, you work hard.”
Manalo said farmers in the Philippines have small plots of land that they often rent rather than own. The farms are multi-purpose and most farmers have other jobs. Manalo raises pigs but also works as an accountant for the government five days a week. She works for the co-op on Saturday.
Her other impression of Canada was its size. The Philippines has 90 million people crowded onto several islands with a land mass that is 10 times smaller than Saskatchewan.
“Canada is blessed. Yesterday we came from Cabri. I saw the very big lands. God has given you more.”
Manalo, who has been on the SIDC board for 16 years, said 70 percent of the co-op’s members are women. They are left to farm and raise the family because the men are working in other parts of the country.
Karen Timoshuk, who works on international development for CCA, said the tour was “a mutual exchange of learning.” The Filipinos were interested in the Canadian practice of soil testing to determine fertilizer needs. They also wanted to know how their co-op could eliminate the middleman and increase storage capacity to take advantage of peak price periods. Meanwhile, the Canadians were learning about the varied member services that agricultural co-ops offer overseas.
“With rural depopulation we are at some point going to have to look at diversifying the services we supply our members in Canada,” Timoshuk said.
Filipinos strive to make their co-op more efficient without putting people out of work, she added.
