Oxfam’s Philippines programme. Such trips follow a pretty standard format – our national staff and relevant partners
[caption id="attachment_11815" align="alignright" width="300" caption="with the moringa farmers"][/caption]
whisk me through a series of site visits and conversations with farmers, civil society organizations, local government officials and anyone else who’ll talk to you. For a few days, I’m engrossed, wrestling on multiple levels, first to understand the intricacies of the projects, and then to try and get at the meta-questions: what are the strengths and weaknesses in our work? What could we be doing better? Is there a clear power analysis and theory of change? Discussions continue in vehicles to and from the visits, over dinner and (sometimes) in the bar, as everyone grapples with the incredibly difficult business of ‘doing development’. It’s intense and definitely the best bit of the job.
I went to Mindanao, one of the poorest and most conflict-ridden islands in the Philippines archipelago, and home to 23m of its 94m population. The focus was our livelihoods work (I hate the term, but can’t think of anything better to describe the complex ways poor people find to put food on the family table). Such work forms the backbone of many of Oxfam’s programmes. In Mindanao, we’re working with women farmers to introduce new crops or upgrade existing ones:
Crop 1: Moringa – a magical tree whose fruit is x7 more rich in Vitamin C than oranges, has x4 more calcium than milk, and x3 more vitamin E than Spinach. The leaves can be made into a herbal coffee or poultry feed. The plant has medicinal properties – arthritis, blood pressure etc. It’s also a good crop for women farmers – easy to plant and harvest (those I talked to had an average of over 4 kids each). The problem for local partner AADC is linking up moringa producers in the idyllic forested mountains of northern Mindanao with the market chains that can deliver reliable customers and improved prices. Possibilities include a herbal remedy exporter to the US and a Philippines health food producer, but for the moment, the main customer is a poultry feed company.
Crop 2: Rubber. Not a new crop, but one which was previously produced on a plantation model, and then replaced by oil palm. Now small farmers are picking it up, but with low grade seeds and poor quality control, and at the mercy of buyers who advance them credit and then force them to accept rock bottom prices. Our partners there are developing a big seedling nursery and bringing in new ideas on climate change adaptation (a real issue here – for example, the project encourages farmers to plant ground cover crops like legumes to retain moisture, as climate change is producing months without rain where previously the two settings for the weather were ‘wet’ and ‘very wet’.)
Crop 3: Abaca: a traditional crop, and relative of the banana. The fibrous bark is stripped and woven into a hard wearing rope. It’s also used in paper manufacture (hence the ‘manila envelope’ – 85% of world production comes from the Philippines). The issue here is how to add value, find better markets and develop women’s participation – Oxfam identified Abaca through a feasibility study as one of the crops with best potential for women farmers in this area (Agusan del Sur).

Uganda went through a moringa phase, which came to nought. No international market. OXFAM needs to contact World Agroforestry Centre and ask about what tree crops will work well there. You do not want to damage the indigenous forest by introducing exotics — what indigenous trees can be made more of?
Hi, Cathy. I’m one of the Oxfam staff who works with our partner, AADC, under the moringa project. There is growing local and international markets for moringa in our part of the world, and we’ve re-validated this early this year as part of our constant market research. In fact, the growers already have multi-year supply contracts. Moringa is not considered as an exotic here, as moringa is part of our landscape. With regards to WAC (formerly ICRAF), we’re in touch with their Mindanao scientist, Dr. Jun Mercado, for a possible research collaboration on more climate resilient crops…
…and, Duncan, yes the “new” dispensation seems quixotic, but since our reach exceeds our grasp, we will continue to plough through. Just as at the global level with just $1 billion+ budget and 6,000+ staff, we presume that we can change the global food system through our GROW campaign 🙂
quite right too Jessan – evidence-based quixotes, that’s us…….
Thanks, Jessan, for answering. That is great about the market. The hype about moringa was so intense in Uganda that when a market did not materialise, most people gave up the crop even for those things for which it was locally useful — like enriching children’s food. Good luck and glad you are in touch with Dr Mercado.
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