Kathmandu September 15,
\nPHILIPPINES – From nothing to something greater: The story of a woman farmer who turned injustice into hope, opportunity, and change
\nEvery harvest begins with a seed.
\nBut the story of Pestales Agriculture Cooperative began with something else-a question.<\/p>\n
Why do the people who work the hardest often earn the least?
\nI 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.
\nOur 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.
\nToday, 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.
\nBut these achievements are not where our story begn.
\nBefore 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.<\/p>\n
Challenge and opportunity: When a farmer’s hard work was worth only 50 centavos
\nOur advocacy began with a visit to Dalaguete, Cebu, known as one of Cebu’s vegetable baskets.
\nWhat we saw there was difficult to forget.
\nFarmers 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.
\nYet, when it was time to sell, many farmers had little control over the price of their own produce.
\nMiddlemen could purchase their vegetables at prices that barely reflected the value of their labor.
\nSometimes, chayote was bought for as little as 50 centavos per piece.
\nFor someone looking at a vegetable in a market, it may seem like an insignificant amount.
\nBut 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.
\nBehind that farmer was a family.
\nBehind that family were children who needed food, education, and a future.
\nThat 50-centavo chayote represented something much bigger than its price.
\nIt represented an agricultural system in which the people carrying the greatest risks could have the least power.
\nSeeing this reality broke our hearts and left us with a question:<\/p>\n
What can we do to help farmers gain greater control over their livelihoods?
\nThat question became the foundation of Pestales Community.
\nWe realized that the problem was not that farmers were unwilling to work.
\nThey were already working hard.
\nThe problem was access.
\nAccess to fair markets.
\nAccess to information.
\nAccess to government programs.
\nAccess to funding.
\nAccess to technology and training.
\nAnd, most importantly, access to a voice.
\nMany 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.
\nThat was the opportunity we saw.
\nWe did not want merely to increase farmers’ income.
\nWe wanted to open doors that had been closed to them for too long.
\nInnovation and solution: Building a fairer path from farm to table
\nWe knew that we could not simply eliminate middlemen.
\nThey are part of the agricultural value chain, and we understood that the solution was not to wage war against them.
\nInstead, we wanted to give farmers choices.
\nWe 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.
\nBut we also discovered another problem.
\nEven when farmers successfully produced crops, there were times when they produced more than the market could absorb.
\nDuring periods of oversupply, vegetables could spoil before they were sold.
\nFarmers lost income.
\nFood became waste.
\nMonths of hard work disappeared.
\nSo we asked another question:<\/p>\n
What if excess harvest could become an opportunity instead of a loss?
\nOur answer was value addition.
\nInstead of selling raw agricultural products alone, we began developing ways to process them into high-value products with longer shelf lives.
\nA crop that once had only a few days to find a buyer could now generate value for months.
\nSurplus could become a product.
\nWaste could become income.
\nAnd farmers could move beyond simply producing crops.
\nThey could become entrepreneurs.
\nThis became the foundation of our sustainable organic agricultural model.
\nOn 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.
\nOur goal was no longer simply:<\/p>\n
“How can farmers grow more?”
\nIt became:
\n“How can farmers earn more, waste less, and retain more of the value they create?”
\nBut there was another part of our innovation that was equally important.
\nWe became a bridge to opportunity.
\nWe help farmers prepare proposals, complete requirements, connect with government agencies, and seek grants, funding, training, and development programs from private institutions and foundations.
\nWe do not simply facilitate applications.
\nWe listen to farmers.
\nWe understand their needs.
\nWe help turn their experiences and aspirations into proposals that can open doors.
\nAnd when farmers cannot speak for themselves in the rooms where decisions are made, we become their voice.
\nBecause every farmer deserves not only a fair price for a harvest, but also a fair chance to build a better future.<\/p>\n
Implementation: From a dream into something people could see
\nA good idea means little if it remains on paper.
\nTurning 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.
\nWe started from literally zero.
\nWe chose not to wait for change.
\nWe began building it.
\nFirst, 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.
\nWe wanted to lead by example.
\nBefore asking other farmers to believe in our model, we wanted to prove that it could work ourselves.
\nWe developed a complete farm-to-market value chain:
\nGrow.
\nProcess.
\nAdd value.
\nMarket.
\nConnect with consumers.
\nWe cultivated raw materials through sustainable organic practices.
\nWe processed agricultural products.
\nWe developed value-added products.
\nWe brought those products to consumers.
\nAnd we documented what we learned so that other farmers and communities could adapt the model to their own needs.
\nBut 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.
\nWe 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-krishi-special","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":408,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions\/408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krishijournal.com.np\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}