Farmer and Community Organizing, Leadership and Rights

IRDF works with small farmers, fisherfolk, Indigenous Peoples, women and rural workers to build strong organizations that can represent their members and advance their rights. The program supports community organizing, leadership development, cooperative strengthening, farmer education and participation in local decision-making. Recent work includes organizing and training of coconut farmers through the Coconut Livelihood Resiliency Project and the ASD Coconut Field Project and support for leadership formation and building collective capacity of coconut farmers in Mindanao, Quezon and Bicol. IRDF also works with rice and coconut farmer and fisherfolk groups on issues such as access to land and productive resources, fair prices, public services and meaningful participation in development programs.