SOCIAL BUSINESS SUMMIT 2013: All roads lead to Bulacan

MANILA, Philippines - It is difficult to imagine a more cosmopolitan scene anywhere in the country. Kris Aquino, comedienne Pokwang and the actor/model Daniel Matsunaga are mingling with a group of students and young professionals from countries as far and wide as France, Canada, Spain and Taiwan. Alongside them, and perhaps the real stars of the moment, are the members of a community of relocated informal squatters who proudly show their visitors around their transformed community. Meanwhile, one man looks slightly more nervous than the rest: Alvie Benitez, a young, local entrepreneur, is eagerly awaiting Kris’s reaction to his most recent innovation: the pato puto (duck egg rice cake).

If the circumstances are unusual, then the venue is as well. After all, this varied array of individuals have gathered not in a smart Metro Manila conference center, nor at one of the Philippines’ more iconic destinations, but on a farm in the unassuming province of Bulacan. However, if farming conjures up images of muddy boots and smelly pigsties to some, then a visit to the GK Enchanted Farm in Angat (Bulacan) may just change those perceptions.

For it is in off-the-beaten-track Angat (an hour from Manila on a good day), that the first-ever Farm Village hub for social innovators has been established. Young entrepreneurs and students from both the Philippines and many other parts of the world have travelled thousands of kilometers to learn about the Enchanted Farm’s vision for social entrepreneurship within the agricultural sector. These entrepreneurs are eager to tap into the region’s rich and varied resources not only to create sustainable businesses but also to become part of the solution to their country’s biggest challenges.

Today Bulacan is the beacon for a region brimming with agricultural potential. It demonstrates how a growing number of change-makers glimpse here the possibility of both being successful and doing good in the Philippines. The Enchanted Farm is also designed to be a template for dealing with the country’s most pressing challenge: how to create sustainable employment opportunities for the relocated informal settlers and improve the productivity of agrarian reform beneficiaries – a massive challenge for government and NGOs to mitigate urban migration and congestion.

This is the challenge that Alvie has taken up. While studying development at La Salle University in 2009, he attended a Gawad Kalinga-organized Center for Social Innovation (CSI) event. In time, he became less enamoured to the theories behind development and more curious about the power of business itself to help eradicate poverty. “Myself and the CSI team planned for a business that would be easy to grow and replicate in different grassroots communities nationwide.”

Bulacan: The home for innovative new businesses

After studying the different business opportunities in Bulacan, Alvie was drawn not to one of the country’s more traditional and established industries, but to the duck Industry. Currently a P2-billion industry, it is tiny compared with the P400-billion chicken industry, but Alvie explains: “We want to make better quality duck products, and then package them and market them better in order to create a better income stream for farmers. At present, the most popular duck product is balut. While there is nothing wrong with this, a balut egg sells for only P15, and if 5-7 layers of people share in its processing, what is left for the poor?”

Starting out with just a duck pen, 100 ducks, and a lot of trial and error, Alvie came across the idea of the Golden Egg, which soon became the flagship product. Colored with natural food-grade turmeric which provided the egg with an original golden color, and with 50 percent less salt content, Alvie found a market that no longer dismissed duck eggs as low value. “We realized that, with the right messaging, and by sticking to your values, people will support you and your business will begin to thrive.”

Alvie delights in the rich using their education to create opportunities for themselves and the hardworking poor. "Our social enterprise has been connected to members of the local Gawad Kalinga village and the surrounding farming communities in the region in order to augment our supply of duck eggs and meat.”

By coming alongside the poor, training them and trusting in their true potential, Alvie has helped harness the genius of the poor. I met Alvie's community partner, Cathy Laron, a Gawad Kalinga beneficiary who, despite not yet completing her high-school education (she is currently studying on a part-time basis), has already learned to assume responsibilities which belie her lack of formal education: “I am very happy at Golden Duck because of the confidence people have shown in me. I have learned to do so many aspects of the job, including accounting, production, purchasing and selling of the products.”

The power of solidarity

The Enchanted Farm stands as an example of what can be achieved when the government, private sector and the voluntary sector come together with a united vision. From the outset, one key partner has been the government of Bulacan itself, as Gov. Willy Sy-Alvarado explains: “When we first visited the site with Tony Meloto (the founder of Gawad Kalinga) back in 2009, it was just wasteland. Today, it is a venue which showcases the very best of Bulacan – not only this province’s enormous agricultural potential, but the talents of our many craftsmen and women.” In addition, in conjunction with the provincial government and other government agencies such as DAR and DENR, livelihood opportunities are being created for 3,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries in Bulacan.

With the prospect of strong civil society engagement and the support of the provincial and national government, major corporations such as Hyundai, Shell, Lifebank, Berjaya and Mitsui have themselves invested heavily in improving the research, educational and technical infrastructure of the village university, helping to ensure that the Enchanted Farm becomes a hub and incubator for emerging social entrepreneurs and businesses.

Currently, many of the economic zones are found south of the capital, despite the region’s rich variety of human and natural resources: “In fact, Bulacan already supplies 60 percent of Metro Manila’s domestically produced meat, over 60 percent of its call center staff and 97 percent of its water supplies,” Gov. Sy-Alvarado tells me.

Such rich natural resources, allied to the government’s commitment to greater partnership with social entrepreneurs and investors in developing local economic zones, make Bulacan a logical destination for Enchanted Farm, from where a new generation of farmer-entrepreneurs will emerge as the new wealth creators in the Philippines. â€œBulacan will soon be to the Philippines what Shenzhen is to China,” Gov. Alvarado enthuses.

A catalyst for nationwide sustainable development

The greater objective of the Enchanted Farm is to demonstrate that, if it can be done in Angat, Bulacan, then it can be done anywhere else. Alvie, for one, has ambitions to reach out beyond the farm itself: “Our starting ground is the farm itself. However, once we demonstrate this model can work here, we will connect that technology and training to farmers outside. Eventually, by investing in the supply chain outside of the farm itself, we will be able to have a greater industry impact.”

If it can provide the spark for the emergence of a new army of social entrepreneurs, perhaps the province of Bulacan will regain its prominent position in Filipino history. Of course, Alvie is not under any illusions that the road ahead will be simple: “Despite all the hardships and challenges we have faced along the way, our incubator, The Enchanted Farm, has not, and will not, give up on us. Where else could I be connected to such a wide variety of people and organizations, all of whom share a commitment to building social businesses which help end poverty?”

As for Kris Aquino’s reaction to pato puto, she loved it. Her praise for the salted golden duck eggs was even more fulsome: “This product is delicious! It really should be in the supermarkets already!”

Maybe it is time for us all to create the demand.

The Golden Duck is just one of several innovative social businesses which are currently being incubated at the farm. Join Alvie and other young change-makers at the Social Business Summit (Oct. 2-5) at the Enchanted Farm and expect a life-changing experience. For more information, visit the website www.socialbusinesssummit.net.

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The author is a British journalist who came to the Philippines on a short-term assignment. He has since stayed 20 months in the country, volunteering for Gawad Kalinga and other causes. His experiences will be documented in a book “The Genius of the Poor.”