ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights how an organization of small- and medium-scale farmers responded innovatively to the new market opportunities and challenges arising from market restructuring. The uniqueness of the innovation is its organizational set-up that consists of two entities: a farmers' association, NorminVeggies, which organizes marketing clusters, and a private corporation, Normincorp, which acts as a marketing arm for the farmers. Small farmers have the productive potential because of their numbers and geographical distribution. However, infrastructure gaps, low productivity, lack of adapted production and management practices and other constraints mean that they need assistance from development organizations and government. There is some evidence that the cost of development interventions can be recovered under a cluster approach. Normincorp is the marketing group that services the needs of NorminVeggies' members. NorminVeggies recently set up a consolidation centre in Cagayan de Oro in partnership with the Department of Agriculture and Growth with Equity in Mindanao.
