In 2008 the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) started the Empowering Smallholder Farmers in Markets (ESFIM) project, in collaboration with the European Consortium of Agricultural Research in Tropics (ECART) The goal of the ESFIM research programme is to strengthen the capacities of national farmers’ organisations in developing countries to empower their smallholder members in markets, creating an enabling policy and regulatory environment as well as effective economic organisations and reinforcing the farmer led participatory policy formulation process of IFAP network. For the Philippines the national research priorities formulated during the workshop are: • Improving price formation mechanism and transparency through the establishment of an Agricultural Commodity Exchange System (ACES). • Taking stock and in depth assessment of past marketing program launched by the National Food Authority – focus on impact on smallholder capacity in benefiting from these programs

The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) was established in 1953 as a labor union. Its goal is to develop and promote economic projects of its members. A problem of these members is that input costs for agricultural produce have increased. This is particularly true for fertilizers and pesticides, which also has led to rising acidity and infertility of farms and has contributed to overall environmental degradation in many rural communities. This project was to make farmers aware of environmentally friendly and more affordable technologies for fertilization and pest control and provide access to these technologies.

The proposed project aims to raise the net incomes of FFF rice farmer-members in at least 1,000 farms in 100 target villages by an average of 20% through an alternative, and more affordable, profitable and sustain¬nable rice farming system. Major project activities include the selection of village-level project areas for organic rice production, the training of core farmer technicians who will assume technology dissemination and monitoring roles, establishment of trial organic rice farms in project areas leading to mass dissemination of organic farming technology within the community, additional training and technical exchange exercises among project participants, the development of an internal quality control system, initial marketing support and promotional activities for organic rice products, and project monitoring and administration.

The IFAP has presented documentary on the Doha Development Round negotiations as its humble contribution to the ongoing debate and discussions on issues involving trade liberalization and agricultural trade rules. As a world farmers organization, IFAP deems it important that farmers, who produce the agricultural products that are traded in the global marketplace, are consulted and involved in the negotiations that will have a huge impact on their livelihood and welfare. However, in order to participate actively, intelligently, and constructively in these discussions, farmers must be well-versed and have a good understanding of the issues and concerns that go into the negotiations in the WTO. In view of the increasing scope and complexity of issues being discussed in the WTO at present, there is an urgent and critical need to develop information materials that will allow key stakeholders to understand and analyze these issues and effectively contribute their ideas and concerns to the discussions. In particular, farmers must have access to easy-to-understand information on key issues relating to trade in agricultural products. This project seeks to contribute to attaining IFAP's objective by developing, producing and disseminating an instructional audio-visual documentary in DVD format that will educate and inform farmer leaders and their constituents on the major issues on agricultural trade that are being discussed at present in the WTO. There is also a proposal to supplement this documentary with a printed version for reference by viewers and as a teaching guide.

Rice the staple product of about 80% of the Filipino population, and as such, has acquired much political and socio-economic significance. Understandably, it has been a protected sector, with the Philippines being one of only three countries (aside from Japan and South Korea) to secure exemption for rice from mandatory tariffication upon its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. Until recently, rice imports were strictly controlled by the government and were undertaken solely by the National Food Authority (NFA), a parastatal established to stabilize and provide price support to both consumers and rice farmers. Persistent internal and external pressures however have led the government towards the conversion of import restrictions into tariffs upon the lapse of the country's WTO exemption in 2005. This has coincided with moves to privatize the NFA and transfer its rice import monopoly to the private sector, starting with accredited farmer organizations on the premise that the benefits from imports should accrue to the sector which would be most adversely affected by such imports. In response to Philippine President Arroyo's instructions, the NFA allotted 400,000 MTs out of the country's required import volume for 2003 to farmer organizations. However, due to the lack of finances, knowhow and general capacity of most farmer organizations to undertake direct imports, most of the farmer groups opted to sell their quotas to local traders and speculators for a mere commission. Others who attempted to import reportedly incurred huge losses due to unanticipated costs, adverse market conditions, and poor quality of imports. The majority of farmer groups however ended up not doing anything at all with their quotas. It is estimated that less than half of the volume allotted to farmer groups will actually be imported either directly or through traders. The FFF/FFFCI, through the CTC, initially had plans to secure quotas and undertake actual imports in behalf of its affiliates and associate groups. Initial contacts were opened with counterpart farmer organizations and cooperatives in Vietnam and Thailand to study the possibility of sourcing rice from them. However, it eventually became apparent that the CTC was not ready and that such a venture would entail too much financial risk. Hence, it was decided that the CTC concentrate for the meantime in assisting its affiliates in marketing their imports and quotas where necessary, and in expanding its own marketing network in anticipation of larger volumes, including imports, in the future. The proposed project therefore seeks to enhance the capacity of the FFF/FFFCI, through the CTC, to implement rice and related marketing activities for the benefit of its members and chapters, by expanding the scope of its supply to imports while developing and maintaining new outlets in the domestic market to accommodate the expected increase in its rice volumes from both local and foreign purchases. This will be achieved by enabling the CTC to undertake actual trial shipments of rice from a foreign supplier and, based on its experience, acquire the knowledge and develop the in-house capacity to implement such an activity on its own in the future. Simultaneously, CTC's capacity to physically handle larger rice volumes will be enhanced, so as to ensure that imports and local stocks are promptly and profitably disposed of in local markets. An ancillary objective of the project is to develop business linkages with counterpart farm organizations in other countries who can supply the rice requirements of the CTC.