Barrio cooperatives typically start with the consumer store project. Members elect a management committee and staff from among themselves and agree on policies and strategies for the capitalization and operation of the project. Management is handled on self-help basis.

Depending on the availability of capitals and status of their operations, some chapters eventually branch out into other projects like grains marketing, small-credit extension, cooperative forming, semi-processing (bakery, milling, shelling, threshing), and transport (jeeps, tricycles). In some areas, women members have also taken the initiative to setup food processing, hog and poultry raising, small-scale production projects on a cooperative basis.

There are now about 400 barrio cooperatives with an average of 50 members each. About 90% of the individual membership is composed of farmers. Women comprise approximately 25% of the total membership, although actual involvement is larger since the whole family tends to et involved in coop activities even if only the head of the family acquires formal membership.