The interim Federation was initiated by participants to the Coastal Resource Management, a CDA-ILO sponsored workshop held in Iloilo last April 1993. The participants came from 6 agro fishery based, multi-purpose, CDA registered Sorsogon cooperatives. These are also beneficiaries of BFAR-UNDP-FAO Seaweed Production Project. These are: Dancalan Development Multi-Purpose Coop, Inc.; St. Lawrence Multi-Purpose Coop, Inc.; Bagacay Agricultural and Livelihood Development Coop, Inc.; Sablayan Development Coop, Inc.; Magallanes Agro Fishing Development Coop; and, Sama -Sama Multi Purpose Coop Inc.
Other CDA registered agro based fishing cooperatives and SEC registered fishery associations (NGOs) have shown interest to join the proposed Federation.
The Federation will be organized from a core of 6 primaries as a District Cooperative. The initial contribution from each primary or participating cooperative is P 10,000.00. The General Assembly will be represented by Chairman of primaries or their authorized representative.
Each participating cooperative will be autonomous in nature as far as operations, administration and financing is concerned. For instance, the farming aspect shall be managed individually by each participating cooperative based on a management plan. The marketing/trading operations however, shall be covered by policies promulgated by the Federation Board of Directors ratified by the General Assembly/membership.
Temporarily, the elected interim officers of the Federation shall assign an over all Project Manager to oversee project operations, liase with different agencies engaged in the Seaweed Production and identify a buyer for the dried seaweed. A marketing contract/agreement shall be executed, detailing the mechanics of delivery, product specification, terms and conditions of payment and mode of payment.
However, primary cooperatives are also given the option to sell to other traders in the locality, or do simple gulaman bar processing in order to get a higher price for their product.
The Project Manager will not be receiving any compensation except for an honorarium (charged from the administrative and selling expenses of each participating cooperative) amount of which will be decided and approved by the Board Members.
Please refer to Annex 3 for the proposed Organizational Structure for each primary or participating cooperative.
The proposed project shall be implemented starting September 1993. The activities and target proposed for participating cooperatives and the Federation is presented in Table 3, below:
Table 3. Project Implementation, 1993–1998
| Period | Activities | |
| Q3,1993 | - | Submission of individual business plans for funding/expansion of 1 ha/coop |
| Q4 | - | Processing/follow up of loan/coop |
| - | Submission/processing of Federation Papers | |
| Q1,1994 | - | Release of funds, seaweed farming |
| Q2 | - | Farming,harvest,processing, trading |
| Q3 | - | Farming, harvest, processing, trading |
| Q4 | - | Farming, harvest, processing, trading |
| 1995 | - | Same activities as in the previous year. Some participating cooperatives may expand farms. Additional aqua based cooperatives may be invited to join the Federation. Preparatory activities are being undertaken for the establishment of a Common Service Processing Facility, including preparation of Feasibility Study and sourcing of financing for the proposed project. |
| 1996 | - | Same farming, processing and trading activities. Submission of Feasibility Study to funding agencies. Training of members in processing. Pilot testing of processing technologies. |
| 1997 | - | Same farming, processing and trading activities. Establishment of a Common Service Processing Plant. Pilot operation and commercialization of the products. |
| 1998 onwards | - | Full project implementation. Maximum farm areas are utilized for commercial production and exportation of agar. |
All these activites will be joint responsibility of participating Cooperatives and the Federation officers. An important component of the project is the conduct of continous trainings to upgrade the already existing skills of the cooperative beneficiaries in seaweed farming and processing. This also includes entrepreneurial trainings to ensure effective and efficient management of the project. This component can be linked with Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), Department of Agriculture (DA) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
