Kathmandu September 15,
PHILIPPINES – From nothing to something greater: The story of a woman farmer who turned injustice into hope, opportunity, and change
Every harvest begins with a seed.
But the story of Pestales Agriculture Cooperative began with something else-a question.
Why do the people who work the hardest often earn the least?
I am Jenalyn A. Entoy, Chairperson and Founder of Pestales Agriculture Cooperative, a grassroots social enterprise committed to empowering small-scale farmers and fishermen in the Philippines.
Our work focuses on connecting farmers to markets, expanding their access to government programs and funding opportunities, promoting sustainable and organic agriculture, and helping communities build more resilient livelihoods.
Today, Pestales manages a 6.4-hectare farm and serves as an accredited TESDA Farm School offering Organic Agriculture Production NC II. We were recognized as the first Certified Organic Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) Group in Cebu and the third in Central Visayas in 2024. In 2025, we became an Organic Certifying Body, strengthening our commitment to advancing organic agriculture. I was also honored with the International Filipino Leaders Award by Ladies of All Nations, Inc. in 2023.
But these achievements are not where our story begn.
Before the farm, before the recognition, before the programs and partnerships, there was simply a woman who witnessed farmers struggling-and decided that she could not remain silent.
Challenge and opportunity: When a farmer’s hard work was worth only 50 centavos
Our advocacy began with a visit to Dalaguete, Cebu, known as one of Cebu’s vegetable baskets.
What we saw there was difficult to forget.
Farmers worked long hours under the sun. They planted, cultivated, harvested, sorted, and transported their crops. They invested their money, time, strength, and hopes into every harvest.
Yet, when it was time to sell, many farmers had little control over the price of their own produce.
Middlemen could purchase their vegetables at prices that barely reflected the value of their labor.
Sometimes, chayote was bought for as little as 50 centavos per piece.
For someone looking at a vegetable in a market, it may seem like an insignificant amount.
But behind that piece of chayote was a farmer who had spent weeks preparing the land, planting, caring for the crop, harvesting it, and carrying it to market.
Behind that farmer was a family.
Behind that family were children who needed food, education, and a future.
That 50-centavo chayote represented something much bigger than its price.
It represented an agricultural system in which the people carrying the greatest risks could have the least power.
Seeing this reality broke our hearts and left us with a question:
What can we do to help farmers gain greater control over their livelihoods?
That question became the foundation of Pestales Community.
We realized that the problem was not that farmers were unwilling to work.
They were already working hard.
The problem was access.
Access to fair markets.
Access to information.
Access to government programs.
Access to funding.
Access to technology and training.
And, most importantly, access to a voice.
Many farmers were eligible for government programs, agricultural support, grants, and private foundation funding. Yet these opportunities often remained beyond their reach because applications required proposals, documentation, and processes they struggled to navigate. Some had limited literacy. Others simply did not know these opportunities existed.
That was the opportunity we saw.
We did not want merely to increase farmers’ income.
We wanted to open doors that had been closed to them for too long.
Innovation and solution: Building a fairer path from farm to table
We knew that we could not simply eliminate middlemen.
They are part of the agricultural value chain, and we understood that the solution was not to wage war against them.
Instead, we wanted to give farmers choices.
We wanted to create stronger connections between farmers and consumers so that producers could have greater bargaining power and retain more of the value created by their labor.
But we also discovered another problem.
Even when farmers successfully produced crops, there were times when they produced more than the market could absorb.
During periods of oversupply, vegetables could spoil before they were sold.
Farmers lost income.
Food became waste.
Months of hard work disappeared.
So we asked another question:
What if excess harvest could become an opportunity instead of a loss?
Our answer was value addition.
Instead of selling raw agricultural products alone, we began developing ways to process them into high-value products with longer shelf lives.
A crop that once had only a few days to find a buyer could now generate value for months.
Surplus could become a product.
Waste could become income.
And farmers could move beyond simply producing crops.
They could become entrepreneurs.
This became the foundation of our sustainable organic agricultural model.
On our own 6.4-hectare farm, we cultivate raw materials using sustainable organic farming practices, transform them into quality processed products, and bring them to the market. Our farm became more than a production site. It became a living example where farmers could see that value addition was practical and possible.
Our goal was no longer simply:
“How can farmers grow more?”
It became:
“How can farmers earn more, waste less, and retain more of the value they create?”
But there was another part of our innovation that was equally important.
We became a bridge to opportunity.
We help farmers prepare proposals, complete requirements, connect with government agencies, and seek grants, funding, training, and development programs from private institutions and foundations.
We do not simply facilitate applications.
We listen to farmers.
We understand their needs.
We help turn their experiences and aspirations into proposals that can open doors.
And when farmers cannot speak for themselves in the rooms where decisions are made, we become their voice.
Because every farmer deserves not only a fair price for a harvest, but also a fair chance to build a better future.
Implementation: From a dream into something people could see
A good idea means little if it remains on paper.
Turning our vision into reality required more than passion. It required planning, courage, hard work, collaboration, and a willingness to begin even when we did not have everything we needed.
We started from literally zero.
We chose not to wait for change.
We began building it.
First, we began with what we had-our own farmland and our determination to make a difference. Through our persistence in seeking opportunities and building partnerships, we were able to access grants that provided agricultural equipment, machinery, and processing facilities. These were more than machines; they became tools of opportunity, helping us turn farmers’ harvests into value-added products, reduce waste, and create new possibilities for our community.
We wanted to lead by example.
Before asking other farmers to believe in our model, we wanted to prove that it could work ourselves.
We developed a complete farm-to-market value chain:
Grow.
Process.
Add value.
Market.
Connect with consumers.
We cultivated raw materials through sustainable organic practices.
We processed agricultural products.
We developed value-added products.
We brought those products to consumers.
And we documented what we learned so that other farmers and communities could adapt the model to their own needs.
But we did not do it alone. Our community members became the foundation of the work. Their dedication and belief in the shared vision made the model possible.
We also built partnerships with government agencies, private-sector organizations, NGOs, and foundations. These partnerships opened access to technical assistance, funding opportunities, capacity-building programs, and market linkages.
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