From an initial capital of PHP450,000, the Aringay Veggies Agriculture Cooperative (Aringay Veggies), composed of 37 household beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps) in Aringay, La Union, achieved remarkable growth in less than two years.

Since its inception in April 2023, the cooperative now has PHP700,000 worth of assets and three of its members graduated from the conditional cash transfer program last year.

The cooperative was chosen for the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DPWH) Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) for its proposal to establish vegetable chips-making using the surplus produce.

Last year, the group was cited as the Best Micro-Enterprise Development Association under DSWD’s National Gawad Sulong in SLP and was among the Outstanding Agri-preneurs in La Union.

The cash prizes worth PHP50,000 and PHP40,000, respectively, were used by the group to purchase additional equipment for their production.

Starting from scratch

After losing her husband in 2022 due to health complications, Emilia Tucay, now the president of Aringay Veggies, was left with four children to feed and send to school.

Prior to her husband’s death, Tucay helped her farmer-husband by selling their produce within the town.

Tucay said that along with the seed capital used by the cooperative to purchase equipment, its members were given series of trainings by the Don Mariano Memorial State University.

“We sold our products to municipal government employees, then to the teachers and students. We even joined the Kadiwa ng Pangulo and other fair trades and we are glad that our products have gained recognition,” she said in Filipino.

The cooperative started with squash chips and later on ventured into eggplant chips, which are the main crops in their locality.

They also produce chips made from lady fingers, malunggay, string beans and kangkong (water spinach), sold between PHP30 and PHP60, with discount for resellers or bulk orders.

Customers from other provinces also order through their Facebook page “Aringay Veggies.”

Tucay said the grow the ingredients, which are processed naturally.

She said they have developed new products, like malunggay and squash noodles and rice cookies.

Government support

“Malaking tulong ang kooperatiba dahil may dagdag kita (The cooperative is a big help because it provides additional income),” Tucay said.

Her eldest is now a licensed teacher, her second child is taking up civil engineering, the third child is taking up computer science, and the youngest is in senior high school.

“We are grateful to the government for programs like the 4Ps and other livelihood programs, which are very helpful, especially for someone like me who is a widow,” she said in Filipino.

Coop member Norma Bernardo said aside from the additional income, she was able to use her skills from her secretarial course.

“I used to just stay at home, take care of our four children and feed our backyard animals. But now I can use my skills for our cooperative while also earning extra income,” she said in Filipino.

For this year, DSWD targets to cater to at least 5,400 households in the region, with budget allocation of PHP113.4 million.

Bulk of the allocation, at PHP54.2 million, will go to 2,614 households in Western Pangasinan, followed by Central and Eastern Pangasinan at PHP32.5 million for 1,457 households; PHP12.6 million for 607 households in La Union; PHP9.2 million for 341 beneficiaries in Ilocos Sur; and PHP4.9 million for 234 households in Ilocos Norte.

DSWD Ilocos Region program coordinator of the SLP Evelyn Acosta said the target this year is based on the number of still unserved 4Ps members and low-income groups, which may still increase depending on the funding from the national government.

“The beneficiaries were chosen based on the Listahanan or the National Targeting System and other means of the program,” she said.

SLP is a capability-building program of the DSWD that helps poor, vulnerable and marginalized sectors to uplift their socio-economic status through sustainable livelihood assets.

The program operates in two tracks: microenterprise development and employment facilitation.

SLP follows a five-year sustainability plan with each phase packed with capability-building activities, partnerships and linkages, and monitoring and evaluation interventions to guide beneficiaries. (PNA)