The Davao City Cooperative Development Office (CCDO) is establishing a techno demo farm as a means for cooperatives to boost their income amid the looming effects of El Niño.
CCDO District Extension Services Division cooperative specialist II Miraflor Trocio, on Tuesday’s At Your Service program of 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR), said the techno demo farm is based on a technology used by El Grande Multi-Purpose Cooperative (EGMC) in Catalunan Grande.
Trocio said EGMC is a fast-growing cooperative in Davao City with millions of assets. Its techno demo farm sits on a 1,000-square meter lot where they grow vegetables, fruits like grapes, tilapia, and livestock, such as hogs and chickens.
“Daghang coop gidala namo didto para makita ilahang diverse farm approach (We brought representatives of some of the cooperatives in the city there to showcase EGMC’s diverse farm approach),” she said. “I-replicate namo ni sa Marilog ug Paquibato. Naa nami’y partner coops ani nga ni-commit para mahimuan sample showcase (We will replicate this in Marilog and Paquibato. We already have partner cooperatives who committed to creating a sample showcase of the techno demo farm in these areas).”
Meanwhile, the CCDO will bring its Coop Kabalitaan Serbisyo Caravan to Barangay Malabog on April 26, 2023.
Trocio said the caravan is an initiative to make their services accessible in far-flung barangays.
She said Dabawenyos can access their services in the city’s 11 political districts. The CCDO has offices in Toril, Calinan, Baguio, Marilog, Tugbok, Agdao, Buhangin, Bunawan, Paquibato, Talomo Poblacion, and Poblacion.
CCDO’s downtown office is at Ating Coop Building, Magsaysay Park.
The CCDO was created via Davao City Ordinance No. 38, Series of 2000, and will turn 23 years in public service in October this year.
Its mandate is to help organizations or associations who want to become cooperatives. In the past, Trocio said the CCDO held orientation seminars in the past, but the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) has been the one conducting them in recent years.
“We assist in processing papers of groups who want to get registered at CDA until they get their certificates. After that, we help them in making viable and sustainable initiatives,” Trocio said in the vernacular.
The CCDO helps cooperatives to become development enterprises, assisting them to improve their businesses and capital. The office also aids cooperatives by letting them take interest-free and collateral-free loans through installments of up to three years, depending on the amount.
The CCDO, according to her, has funds from the City Government of Davao, to loan money to cooperatives from P100,000 to P1 million to small, micro, medium, and large cooperatives, which is determined by their assets.
The CCDO also holds free specialized and mandatory pieces of training on how to run their cooperatives to help them become CDA compliant.
Davao City currently has over 800 cooperatives. CIO
