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🏆 Value Proposition🏆

🌱 For the small-scale farmers most vulnerable to demand and supply shocks, Tulay Tunay presents to them a source of stable income. This is because the contract farming service of Tulay Tunay, by nature, guarantees that farmers’ crops are paid before they have even been planted. It helps farmers help themselves by giving them the income they need to be able to invest in their farms and families to improve their resilience to market shocks moving forward.

🌱 For our consumers, Tulay Tunay presents to them the opportunity to purchase crops at a price close to farmgate prices. This is because Tulay Tunay does not have the high markup cost seen in middle-men procured crops.

🚚 Distribution Channels 🚚

🌱Tulay Tunay will operate in La Trinidad, Benguet, making an initial set of contracts with 10-20 small-scale farmers. This is because La Trinidad is further away from a “Bagsakan” Terminal that transports goods from smaller farmers to the metropolis.

🌱 Tulay Tunay will rent trucks to transport these goods, storing them in a vegetable shed rented out in Parañaque City. This locality is selected due to its proximity to both SLEX and NLEX.

🚚 Customer Relationships 🚚

🌱 For the farmers we will offer contracts to, we will select small-scale farmers who do not have the capital and means to transport their crops from the farmgate to the agricultural terminals and are most reliant on current middlemen arrangements. Additionally, these will be the farmers who suffered the largest losses (amongst other farmers in the community) due to market shock-related disruptions. We will determine who these farmers are through coordination with the Local Government, the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist, Cooperatives in the area, and review of accounts and profits.

🌱 For the market we are targeting to sell the crops purchased through contract, these are composed of the following:

Socially Aware Enterprises. We will coordinate with malls who routinely aid NGOs in making their products available to a wider market. This includes Ayala Malls and the Alabang Town Center, who dedicate spaces in their malls for NGOs and advocacy groups to sell their products-for-a-cause. Other organizations aided by these malls include Rural Rising Philippines.

Socially Aware Communities. We will likewise coordinate with more affluent villages whose Homeowner Associations host weekly weekend village markets for their residents’ consumer needs. Given Tulay Tunay’s cause as well as the fact that the crops are cheaper than other market alternatives (due to the elimination of middlemen markup costs), we are likely to succeed in selling in these village markets. Examples include Legazpi Village’s Outdoor Sunday Market, San Lorenzo Village, and Urdaneta Village, all located in Makati City.

💰 Revenue Streams 💰

The Revenue Streams of Tulay Tunay are fourfold:

🌾 To gain starting capital, Tulay Tunay intends to be granted the Fast Company World Changing Idea Honor by MovingWorlds—social project honorees are granted support through resources and connection such that the social projects come to light. Tulay Tunay will apply for the award through the ASEAN Youth Advocates Network, a Philippines-based organization under MovingWorlds.

🌾 To gain starting capital, Tulay Tunay intends to tap into the Corporate Social Responsibility wings of companies that have devoted themselves to solving the agricultural problem. Examples include Metro Pacific Investments Foundation rescue-buying 8,000 kg of produce during the pandemic and San Miguel Corporation, which aided Rural Rising amidst the pandemic through funding, provision of logistical support, and assisting the NGO in forming Rural Rising Vegtacycle, a permanent soup kitchen, food bank, and community center that allows the crops purchased by Rural Rising to serve those in need. The advocacies of both companies are focused on helping the least and last in Filipino society as reflected by their previous actions, and a refined action plan would surely be able to secure their support.

🌾 To have a continuous revenue stream, Tulay Tunay will sell the crops—bought under contract—to Village Markets, such as the Legazpi Village’s Outdoor Sunday Market, San Lorenzo Village, and Urdaneta Village. Given Tulay Tunay’s cause as well as the fact that the crops are cheaper than other market alternatives, we are certain that we would be able to tap into this literal market for the farmers. We will also sell the crops to enterprises who have partnered up with us, or are interested in the price-competitive crops.

🌾 To have a continuous revenue stream, Tulay Tunay will also link farmers and other enterprises who may be interested in entering contract farming with them. This is because enterprises are constantly looking for cheaper crops amidst rising prices, and this is a clear incentive for them to support farmers and Tulay Tunay.

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Initial Capital - This will come from organizations that are known for funding promising startups of social enterprises in the Philippines. In addition, we also aim to tackle companies who intend to tap into their CSR wings and include themselves in solving the agricultural problem in the country.

Source of Grant:
1.  Fast Company World Changing Idea Honor by MovingWorlds through the ASEAN Youth Advocates Network

Possible Companies:
2. Metro Pacific Investments Foundation
3. San Miguel Corporation

Sale of Crops – After the capital accumulation phase, our continuous source of income will come in the form of selling crops, bought under contract, to enterprises and partners that are interested in cheaper alternatives. Partners would opt to choose our crops as we position ourselves to be a cheaper alternative yet still offer high-quality crops in wholesale quantities.

Possible Partners:
1. Village Markets
a. Legazpi Village’s Outdoor Sunday Market
b. San Lorenzo Village
c. Urdaneta Village

2. Business Enterprises – interested in price-competitive crops that we offer

Payment Options - There will be two payment options under our contract farming. First, full payment in cash or check for the total quantity of crops purchased. Second, we will be giving credit terms for up to 15 days.

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🌱 Fixed Costs are two: the cost of storing the vegetables bought from La Trinidad, Benguet. Storage would require refrigeration, meaning that there is a fixed cost of purchasing large enough refrigerators to preserve the lifespan of the vegetables enough until they can be sold. Storage investments are the most expensive fixed cost. The second fixed cost is the cost of materials needed to sell in village markets—for example, tables, crates for vegetables, publicity materials such as fliers and posters to be displayed, et cetera.

🌱 Variable Costs include (a) trucking services that will be rented to transport crops from La Trinidad to Metro Manila, (b) transportation services that will be rented to transport crops from the warehouse in Parañaque City to the Village Markets and Malls in Metro Manila, (c) utilities (e.g. electricity, water) from storage of vegetables, and (d) staff to help clean and sort the vegetables purchased—a variable cost we must consider, as advised by one of the experts we consulted. The most expensive variable cost is likely to be the trucking service from La Trinidad to Metro Manila.

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Our sustainability effort lies on our Logistics of Distribution of crops to our possible partners.

Optimized Routes - We plan ahead of time the optimal routes to take for our logistics partners. We make sure that deliveries will cover fewer miles to run in order to lessen carbon emissions on every delivery.

Nearby Inventory - We have a warehouse available for the storage of crops sourced from La Trinidad which is strategically located in Paranaque in order to be able to fulfill orders in Metro Manila, rather than orders coming from a central storage or a single store located far away from the customer. This ultimately helps reduce the carbon footprint of our deliveries.

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🌾 Small-scale operation for concentrated impact. We are establishing an agency to assist farmers through contract farming. This means that we will enter a contract with farmers and buy their produce in advance, and sell these produce after harvest.

🌾Clients: 10-20 farmers in Benguet, Cordillera Administrative Region.

🌾 Customers: Consumers, restaurants, enterprises, and other bulk-buyers from the National Capital Region. Consumers will be reached through partnerships with malls and village markets whose CSR would support our venture - such as Ayala Malls and Legazpi Village Sunday Market. Restaurants and enterprises are those who want to buy cheaper crops in bulk.

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🌱Small-scale direct impact; 10-20 farmers in La Trinidad, Benguet.

🌱Farmer-focused; the non-negotiable goals are (a) to increase their profit margin for their crops and (b) provide a safety net for farmers.

🌱Transformative impact: we will be the first enterprise to give farmers a contractually guaranteed stable source of income, which they direly need to invest in themselves and their farms.

Further goals and KPI are found in "Proposed Solution" and "Launching Phase" sections.

Issues
🍂 Farmers' unfamiliarity with contract farming and legal processes. We must cross both the expertise and language barrier such that they know what is happening, such that they are able to make their own choices for them. This is empowerment.

🍂 Finding clients willing to enter the contracts with the farmers.

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🏆 Farmer-Centric - the solutions we present must be ones that farmers want to be involved in themselves. We must always take their perspective.

🏆Sustainability - the operation must be self-sustaining such that it can continue to aid farmers beyond 2022's pandemic and fuel price issues; this is because the logistical weaknesses of the supply chain are predicted to outlast these short-term issues.

🏆Empowerment - this operation will actively involve the choices and preferences of farmers. They and their choices matter.

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🌱 EMPOWERMENT: unlike competitors such as local middlemen, our social enterprise aims to lower the markup cost and increase the profit margin for farmers to transport and sell their products. Moreover, we give our farmers assured income, and thus they may continuously invest in themselves and their farms to improve their resilience - an action they would not otherwise be able to do if they were routinely afflicted by market shocks.

🌱 MARKETABILITY: it also aims to lower the purchase cost for direct consumers. This is because the crops of Tulay Tunay will be very close to farmgate prices due to minimal markup cost; this minimal markup cost is due to Tulay Tunay's crops not having the same middleman-associated costs.

🌱 MARKETABILITY: unlike rescue buy operations (which solves the same problem), the marketability of our crops is higher as the quality of these crops are higher. Those who buy it are not merely those buying for a cause; it is easier to market fresh produce than rescue buy produce.

🌱 RISK ABSORPTION: all the while, it also ensures farmers a continuous pipeline of revenue through absorbing the risk of contract farming.

🌱 OPPORTUNITY: makes the most out of available crop insurance offered by the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation

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35% of all farmers experienced heavy logistical disruptions that made selling their produce impossible (ACIAR, 2020). The average losses felt by a family each month amounts to P30,000, which is troubling given that the monthly income of farming families is estimated to only be P35,000.

Farmers deeply rely on middlemen to sell their crops. However, when there are transport disruptions, fall in demand, rising commodity prices, or increased competition with imports, middlemen no longer buy the crops of farmers and farmers have no means to bring the crops to markets.

Farmers are forced to trash their own crops due to the logistical limits of middlemen.

We want to replace these middlemen so that farmers no longer have to watch them rot.

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🌾 Rural Rising Philippines - They employ rescue-buy. This means that they buy the produce that absolutely have no more buyers; these are products that middlemen contractors do not accept and/or are products close to perishing, and thus are bought by no one. These rescued crops are bought by Rural Rising at a price that still gives farmers a profit, then brought to Manila and are sold at lower than market price. The main issue lies in the willingness of customers to buy rescue-buy crops. The quality is lower, resulting into less market demand.

🌾Good Food Community - They employ contract farming between conscious city-dwellers and farmers. This is so that farmers are assured of profits, while consumers are able to buy vegetables in bulk at cheaper cost. The main issue lies in the clients of Good Food Community; as these are normal laymen and not enterprises, they are not able to buy as large a bulk of vegetables as businesses would be.

🌾 Government Crop Insurance - While available, knowledge of this remains limited for farmers, thus farmers are unable to maximize this opportunity.

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🍂 Rising price of commodities due to rising price of fuel. This lowers market demand as people have less income, making it harder to compete against more affordable imported crops.

🍂 Competition with affordable imported crops; social stigma against local produce also plays a role.

🍂 Competition with existing vegetable suppliers of Metro Manila enterprises.

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Reaching Customers (Enterprises and Consumers)

🌱 Online Marketing measures. We likewise tap into the DLSU Community, who have shown great fervor in supporting businesses and NGOs for a cause.

🌱 CSR Partnerships with business enterprises. Several companies have made support of local foundations part and parcel of their CSR mission.

Reaching Clients (Farmers)

🌱 Direct interaction of the agency with farms.

🌱 Coordination with NGOs, Cooperatives, and the Municipal Office of La Trinidad to identify areas whose farmers suffer from crop spoilage most. If available, we will also use Financial Statements and Review of Accounts.

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Tulay Tunay: A Contract Farming Initiative

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Tulay Tunay: A Contract Farming Initiative

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Tulay Tunay is an enterprise that aims to give farmers stable income despite the market fluctuations that afflict the Philippine manufacturing sector. The way that Tulay Tunay operates is given as follows:

🌱 Tulay Tunay enters contract farming with small-scale farmers. The contract specifies that Tulay Tunay will pay in advance a specific price for the farmer’s produce for a specified number of seasons. The price is determined with the farmers and with market research; they are involved in the process such that they are empowered and do not feel like they are being price-gouged. Tulay Tunay will also insulate itself from risk by taking crop insurance.

🌱 After the harvest, Tulay Tunay arranges a transportation intermediary to take the produce from La Trinidad to Metro Manila for cleaning and storage in Parañaque City.

🌱 After performing online marketing and arrangements with enterprises, Tulay Tunay sells the produce at a close-to-farmgate price in mall sites and village markets. We will also sell wholesale to interested enterprises.

🏆 We believe that this is how we can best help farmers help themselves—through contractually assured profits, farmers are given the resources they need to invest in themselves and their farms.

The above details the routine operations of Tulay Tunay. Tulay Tunay’s launching will occur in four phases. Tulay Tunay has four phases, mirroring the Three Phases of Business Launch—pre-launch, launch, and post-launch.

🌱 Pre-Launch: Research and Capital (6 months)

Tulay Tunay improves and refines its operation processes further through market research and coordination with other NGOs and LGUs. Tulay Tunay will form feasibility research and project its financial structure and statements. Other legal issues are covered in this stage.

Tulay Tunay identifies the small-scale farmers who are most vulnerable in La Trinidad through collaboration with the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist, the Local Government, cooperatives, and (if available) review of accounts and profits of individual farms. These farmers will be notified of the contract farming Tulay Tunay is interested in pursuing with them.

Following refinement of the plan for the enterprise, Tulay Tunay will gain capital through support of advocacy groups and achievements with the plan. This includes applying for the Fast Company World Changing Idea Honor by MovingWorlds through the ASEAN Youth Advocate Network and the Blue Case Competition Award.

Tulay Tunay will also gain capital through the Corporate Social Responsibility wings of companies, such as San Miguel Corporation and Metro Pacific Investments Foundation. These specific companies are cited due to their past CSR actions of aiding other NGOs with the goal of helping Philippine farmers.

🏆 KPI: 1 Award won; capital of at least Php 100,000 acquired.

🌱 Pre-Launch: Partnership (4 months after)

After capital has been secured, Tulay Tunay will form partnerships with companies and communities in order to have a venue and market wherein the crops can be sold. Such venues include Ayala Malls—an enterprise which has already shown staunch commitment to supporting businesses aiding indigeneous groups and farmers—and village markets such as the Legazpi Village Outdoor Market. Given that our crops are sold at close-to-farmgate prices, we can expect that both mall enterprises and villages would see our crops as a means to help their own communities satisfy their consumer needs.

🏆 KPI: At least three (3) assured market locations across Metro Manila, which Tulay Tunay can use no less than twice a week.

🌱 Launch (1 year later)

Tulay Tunay will launch its operations. Profits are regulated and observed. We evaluate crop quality, the effectiveness of our crop insurance, inventory liquidation, and most of all the satisfaction of the farmers we have served. Accounting and financial statements are prepared.

🏆 KPI: At least ten (10) farmers served through contract. At least Php 200,000 in revenue after all contracts are completed, thereby securing Php 100,000 in liquid capital.

🌱 Post-Launch (3 years later)

Tulay Tunay will collaborate with other enterprises, NGOs, and government agencies to improve its reach and service to more farmers.

Begin actively linking other enterprises to farmers such that more can enjoy the stability of contract farming, though not necessarily through Tulay Tunay. Farmer empowerment and involvement remains a key part of these “networked” contracts.

🏆 KPI: At least thirty (30) farmers served through contract directly to Tulay Tunay. At least Php 800,000 in yearly revenue.

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Who are your key partners?

🌱 The ASEAN Youth Advocates Network and similar organizations devoted to aiding NGOs with the advocacy of helping the vulnerable.

🌱 Companies and enterprises whose CSR Missions drive them to aid distressed farmers and the agricultural sector. These include Ayala Malls, San Miguel Corporation, and Metro Pacific Investments Foundation who have previously helped farmers and the NGOs dedicated to helping them amidst the great market shocks of the pandemic, whether by funding or by providing space for these crops to be sold.

🌱 Village Markets who would provide Tulay Tunay with a customer base and market reach to sell our price-competitive crops and sustain Tulay Tunay in the long run.

Who are your key suppliers?

🌱 The key suppliers of Tulay Tunay include (a) the farmers whose crops we would purchase and (b) the logistic trucking firms who we would use to transport crops to our storage area in Paranaque City.

What key resources are you acquiring from your partners? What key activities do they perform?

🌱 The ASEAN Youth Advocates Network (and similar NGOs), along with the CSR wing of companies, would provide Tulay Tunay with the capital needed to start this business venture and aid distressed farmers.

🌱 Mall- and market-like enterprises such as Ayala Malls and the Legazpi Village Sunday Market would provide Tulay Tunay with venues where it can sell its price-competitive crops, thereby securing a sustainable revenue stream.

Who are the people and groups that you must involve to achieve success? What value will they bring?

🌱 It is imperative that Tulay Tunay manages to successfully have the enterprises listed above as partners. More specifically, securing the support of the ASEAN Youth Advocates Network through the Fast Company World Changing Idea Award and CSR wings of San Miguel Corporation and Metro Pacific Investments Foundation (and other companies) is imperative such that Tulay Tunay is able to secure starting capital. This is because Tulay Tunay cannot generate revenue without first entering into contracts with the small-scale farmers—and Tulay Tunay, with its mission of farmer empowerment, will only enter into contracts with farmers that it can pay upfront.

🌱 In order to secure a sustainable income stream, Tulay Tunay must have an avenue and market where it may sell the crops purchased from farmers—this is because the upfront payment to farmers is a cost, and must be supplanted with revenue. Thus Tulay Tunay needs to secure a partnership with market- and mall-like enterprises like Ayala Malls and Village Markets such that Tulay Tunay has its needed avenue.

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🌱 Cost Control is done by the proponents of this social venture by avoiding costs as much as possible—more specifically, the proponents aim to tap into partners such that costs can be mitigated. For example, the fixed cost of an actual storage house was not listed, as an unused property owned by one of the proprietors can be used instead, making it cost-free. Secondly, the variable cost of renting a space in the Malls and Markets to sell are not listed, as the CSR of enterprises and communities have historically allowed them to give a cost-free space to NGOs—for example, Ayala Malls does not ask Rural Rising to pay for rent when it sells its rescue-bought vegetables.

🌱 Precise Costing varies not just from season to season but from day-to-day; for this reason, precise costing is done in Launching Phase 1, which is detailed further on in this Padlet.

🌱 This makes our business more cost-driven as cost-effective crops are our main value proposition to consumers. This is why Tulay Tunay must execute extensive outsourcing (e.g. partnerships) to minimize its cost.

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The main social benefit of the cooperative is to empower farflung farmers who have been exploited by traditional middlemen linkages.

Tulay Tunay’s contract farming gives farmers a sustainable pipeline of income, logistical assistance, and insurance for crop risks – all through ensuring that they participate in the valuation of their crops.

Contracts made by Tulay Tunay are profitable, accessible, and farmer-centric.

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Equally important to the organization is the quality, accessibility, and prices of crops being delivered to metropolitan areas.

To ensure that they are of high quality, the cooperative would employ market-competitive quality assurance that is run internally by farmers and quality checkers.

To ensure accessibility, Tulay Tunay would link with community and village markets, small food businesses, and SMEs for bulk seasonal orders that would lessen costs.

To ensure that prices remain competitive, Tulay Tunay cuts the markup imposed by a plethora of middlemen that the crops would face from farm to consumer, essentially directing farmers’ products to consumers with the least middleman cost as possible.

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A spillover benefit that the organization aims is the empowerment of farming cooperatives and contract farming at large.

Essentially, the main barrier that contract farming faces in terms of its adoption is the popularity of traditional middlemen linkages in La Trinidad.

The palakasan and suki systems generate invisible inefficiencies to farmers without realizing that these practices only enrich middlemen.

With the potential success of Tulay Tunay, this could spread the word among the community of farmers of its benefits and would hopefully pierce the veil that wholesalers and commissioners set up.

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A social cost that would be inevitable in the success of the cooperative is the power held by traditional middlemen linkages.

Workers who are employed in wholesaling and commissioning for farmers are likely to face less and less customers and profits if more and more farmers avail of the contract farming services provided not only by Tulay Tunay, but also by other farming cooperatives.

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Another social cost that the cooperative might face is the quality of crops being delivered to consumers. If buyers in village markets and other enterprises are very particular about the companies they trust on to mark product quality, they might be averse in purchasing the internally-assured crops by Tulay Tunay.

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The main ecological cost of the initiative is the transportation of crops from farm to consumer.

The success of Tulay Tunay would have to come at the cost of voluminous transportation – which largely contributes to emissions, bottlenecks, and other types of pollution towards the general public.

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Chad would be in charge of the logistics and operations of Tulay Tunay, ensuring that the cooperative would function smoothly in trying to deliver its contract services to farmers. He would be in charge of mapping out transportation routes, marshaling documents and permits to operate, furnishing reportorial requirements to proper authorities, and ensuring internal synergy within the organization.

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Joshua would oversee the finances of Tulay Tunay, ensuring that the cooperative has enough fuel to run on. He would be responsible for maintaining an operational profit margin, minimizing economic and social costs, as well as maximizing the returns of investments done by the group. To do this, he must oversee the accounting books, prepare financial reports to investors, and communicate with the Research and Development team on strategies to go around the fluctuating fixed and variable input costs the cooperative has to incur.

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Arianne Pastrana: Research and Development 

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Arianne Pastrana: Research and Development 

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Ari would spearhead research and development of Tulay Tunay, ensuring that the cooperative is up to date with consumer taste, market prices of crops, transportation cost tables, and crop seasonality. She would also be in charge of the cooperative’s innovation wing, which would equip farmers with up-to-date techniques, methods, technology, and even crop species.

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Virgil Raquedan: Marketing and External Relations

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Virgil Raquedan: Marketing and External Relations

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Virgil would serve as the face of Tulay Tunay, maintaining outstanding rapport with investors, farmers, authorities, and the general public. He would be in charge of marketing and publicity campaigns that would link the contractual crop outputs to community markets, hotels, restaurants, and other consumers. He is also in charge of external linkages – encouraging investors and corporations to include the cooperative in their CSR initiatives.

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Dominance of exploitative traditional middlemen linkages

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Dominance of exploitative traditional middlemen linkages

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Generally speaking, La Trinidad farmers have three main options for middlemen linkages: commissioning, wholesaling, and contractual farming. The former two are more popular than the latter, with wholesaling as the most prevalent. The problems with the two main types of middlemen are: 1) sensitivity to market volatilities, 2) large risk to farmers, and 3) high markup that would force farmers to push down prices even more during demand and supply shocks.

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As a social enterprise, Tulay Tunay looks forward to generate adequate revenue to aid beneficiary farmers and raise enough surplus to reinvest back in the business process. Collected surplus revenue are used to fund the costs for the next cycles until it's sufficient and no longer requires external capital. Within a year, it aims to generate at least 20% surplus revenue, with expected year-on-year growth, until it reaches enough funds to be self-sufficient as an independent social venture.

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🏆 Value Proposition🏆

🌱 Tulay Tunay's primary value proposition is contract farming service to reserve farmers’ crops to clients prior to planting. The key resource needed in this is public relations with various businesses and companies, to ensure efficient business connections and transactions and human resources from beneficiary farmers to supply the competitively priced goods to clients. Moreover, financial resources are also needed in the form of initial capital for startup expenses and fixed & variable costs.

🚚 Distribution Channels 🚚

🌱Tulay Tunay requires trucks and other forms of logistics vehicles to mass transport goods from farmers to clients and buyers. This physical resource is central to the efficiency of operations, especially when dealing with fresh goods that are at risk of spoilage and wastage. Partnerships with logistics companies aligned with the advocacy is also a potential route to decrease transport costs.

🚚 Customer Relationships 🚚

🌱 Tulay Tunay will have two (2) primary customers:

Socially Aware Enterprises. Coordinating with these requires formal contracts to ensure business efficiency. Reaching out to enterprises may need a database to establish relationships with as many clients that can be contacted.

Socially Aware Communities. Coordinating with communities that live a conscious lifestyle and align with Tulay Tunay's advocacy shall be executed by reaching out through public relations and written agreements.

💰 Revenue Streams 💰

Establishing stable revenue streams would require initial capital, hence financial resources are integral in this component. Tulay Tunay aims to penetrate organizations that fund startup and social enterprises for a cause as well as partner with companies that share the same advocacy on agricultural sustainability. Moreover, the enterprise would not be able to function and generate revenue adequately without key human resources that can man the end-to-end business operations.

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🌱 Pre-Launch: Research and Capital (6 months)

Tulay Tunay improves and refines its operation processes further through market research and coordination with other NGOs and LGUs. Tulay Tunay will form feasibility research and project its financial structure and statements. Other legal issues are covered in this stage.

Tulay Tunay identifies the small-scale farmers who are most vulnerable in La Trinidad through collaboration with the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist, the Local Government, cooperatives, and (if available) review of accounts and profits of individual farms. These farmers will be notified of the contract farming Tulay Tunay is interested in pursuing with them.

Following refinement of the plan for the enterprise, Tulay Tunay will gain capital through support of advocacy groups and achievements with the plan. This includes applying for the Fast Company World Changing Idea Honor by MovingWorlds through the ASEAN Youth Advocate Network and the Blue Case Competition Award.

Tulay Tunay will also gain capital through the Corporate Social Responsibility wings of companies, such as San Miguel Corporation and Metro Pacific Investments Foundation. These specific companies are cited due to their past CSR actions of aiding other NGOs with the goal of helping Philippine farmers.

🏆 KPI: 1 Award won; capital of at least Php 100,000 acquired.

🌱 Pre-Launch: Partnership (4 months after)

After capital has been secured, Tulay Tunay will form partnerships with companies and communities in order to have a venue and market wherein the crops can be sold. Such venues include Ayala Malls—an enterprise which has already shown staunch commitment to supporting businesses aiding indigeneous groups and farmers—and village markets such as the Legazpi Village Outdoor Market. Given that our crops are sold at close-to-farmgate prices, we can expect that both mall enterprises and villages would see our crops as a means to help their own communities satisfy their consumer needs.

🏆 KPI: At least three (3) assured market locations across Metro Manila, which Tulay Tunay can use no less than twice a week.

🌱 Launch (1 year later)

Tulay Tunay will launch its operations. Profits are regulated and observed. We evaluate crop quality, the effectiveness of our crop insurance, inventory liquidation, and most of all the satisfaction of the farmers we have served. Accounting and financial statements are prepared.

🏆 KPI: At least ten (10) farmers served through contract. At least Php 200,000 in revenue after all contracts are completed, thereby securing Php 100,000 in liquid capital.

🌱 Post-Launch (3 years later)

Tulay Tunay will collaborate with other enterprises, NGOs, and government agencies to improve its reach and service to more farmers.

Begin actively linking other enterprises to farmers such that more can enjoy the stability of contract farming, though not necessarily through Tulay Tunay. Farmer empowerment and involvement remains a key part of these “networked” contracts.

🏆 KPI: At least thirty (30) farmers served through contract directly to Tulay Tunay. At least Php 800,000 in yearly revenue.

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Agricultural Economist
Dean of the Department of Economics, DLSU

Comments and Feedback, given during a Zoom Meeting last June 2, 2022
🌱 Clarify the problem and the causes of it, such that our solution is clearer.
🌱 Use the following online repositories from the organizations below to have a better understanding of how farmers, cooperatives, and NGOs aiding farmers work:
- Food and Agriculture Organization
- Philippine Statistical Authority
- Department of Agriculture, Philippine Rural Development Project and its I-REAP

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Professor, Nueva Vizcaya State University
Has had and continues to conduct advocacy work with agricultural cooperatives in Nueva Vizcaya.

Comments and Feedback, given during a Zoom Call last June 11, 2022
🌱 Enlightened us on the more practical, nitty-gritty side of transporting vegetables from La Trinidad, Benguet (or any province) to Metro Manila. Namely, these are the following:
- the cost of transporting the vegetables changes based on the day and time, as renting of trucks are very much influenced by supply and demand
- it is necessary to have staff that can clean the vegetables, because the farmers do not clean it themselves as it requires manpower. Fresh vegetables will arrive with mud, leaves, casing, and so on.

🌱 Enlightened us further on why crop spoilage exists.
- The key problem of farmers is that oversupply usually exists. They are thus unable to set a proper price for their crops and, since they cannot turn a profit anyway, they allow the crops to rot instead. Oversupply exists due to competition with foreign imports, larger agricultural farms, and a lack of centralized planning for the agricultural sector.
- Quality barrier. Farmers cannot pass the quality checks of "bagsakan" Agricultural Terminals (where middlemen purchase crops that they will bring to Metro Manila). Many crops that are actually fine for consumption are forced to rot because they are too large, too small, and otherwise do not have the ideal characteristics.
- Small-scale farmers may also struggle with bringing the crops to the bagsakan Agricultural Terminals to begin with, because they have no means of transport. To solve this, they often take loans just to transport their crops.

🌱 Detailed to us further advantages of the social enterprise:
- We can have a drastically more competitive price range by buying directly from farmers. Crops tend to be quite expensive mostly because farmers add a markup to pay off their loans, transportation, and so on, and middlemen add a markup on top of that. Tulay Tunay has the opportunity to buy at a farmgate price.

🌱 If we want to pursue the project further, it would be ideal for us to prepare layman-friendly questionnaires to gain farmers' insight.

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CAPSTONE SIC Pitch - Group 1 - Antonio Dita Pastrana Raquedan.mp4