With modest support, small business copes well with crisis

Special Report: DOST helps SMEs survive

FROM an association of agrarian farmers to a flower cooperative, from a shrimp fry hatchery to banana tissue culture businesses, small entrepreneurs across the country are demonstrating that they can cope with the global financial crisis.

Their stories prove that with a little hope and a lot of dreams, Filipino small businesses can survive—and thrive.

That is, with a little encouragement and financial support from where it matters most—this time, the Small Enterprises Technology Upgrading Program (SET-UP) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

The Golden Fish Farm in Barangay Inawayan in Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur received SET-UP assistance to build its concrete ponds and water canals as well as acquire quality hito breeders.

Technicians and researchers from the Sultan Kudarat Polytechnic State College (SKPSC) were trained in banana tissue culture by experts from the University of the Philippines-Los Baños sent by SET-UP that also equipped a spacious 150-square-meter laboratory inside the SKPSC-College of Agriculture.

After the initial first-year assistance, the SKPSC has been receiving an annual fund as well as staff retraining.

SET-UP provided P400,000 for the construction of four greenhouses for the Gulon Together Again Multipurpose Cooperative in Benguet, the largest cutflower producer in the Cordilleras.

SET-UP then provided not only financial assistance to four cooperative members in acquiring the greenhouses, but a doable paying scheme as well—payable in three years without interest.

The initiative also provided technology training on production and post harvest skills, including improved packaging and SET-UP assisted in market promotion.

The JIMBO Prawn Fry Hatchery in San Roque, Mercedes, Camarines Norte, was the recipient of a SET-UP support for the infusion of equipment to optimize prawn and shrimp fry production.

A P515,000-grant went for the purchase of a portable heating system; a salinometer, to monitor salinity of water in each tank; electric motor; and an electric generator. After the intervention, income jumped 26 percent.

Through SET-UP, the First Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative (FARBECO) in Bukidnon received training seminars on rubber processing and related technologies. FARBECO runs the huge, 743-hectare rubber plantation and its processing mill.

SET-UP facilitated the P450,000 grants-in-aid to build a smoke house for sheet rubber drying and the processing of crepe rubber.

A basic premise for most of DOST’s technology assistance is that the project should increase income to improve the standard of living of cooperative members and generate employment.

The untold stories of enterprising Filipino small business ventures we have chosen for this Special Report reflect this promise: with modest support, more work and more income is possible. –Paul M. Icamina, Special Reports Editor, Manila Times