Monday, November 28, 2011

Organic Agriculture: The Key to Sustainable Farm Productivity & Food Security

Organic farming is the key to sustainable farm productivity and food security, Regional Executive Director Antonio G. Gerundio of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

Speaking before the participants to the first Organic Agriculture Program orientation and briefing in Eastern Visayas on November 23, at the Ritz Tower de Leyte, RED Gerundio said, “it is not true that organic agriculture would hamper us from achieving our goal on food security. Several studies show that organic farming will even help us attain higher productivity on a long term basis. It is just a matter of managing the transition from conventional to organic farming.”

Pursuant to Republic Act 10068 or the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010, the Department of Agriculture-8 (DA-8), the Department of Agriculture it advocacy and information campaign in order to raise the awareness and convince the farmers to go into organic farming.

“If we want to save our environment and the future generations, we have to redirect our efforts towards improving our agriculture system. Let’s go back to the natural way of farming for it is the only means to prevent the environmental and life-threatening effects of synthetic farming,” RED Gerundio told the participants composed of local chief executives, municipal agricultural officers, agricultural technologists, and representatives from the academe, partner-government agencies and some NGOs.

RED Gerundio who is an avid organic agriculture advocate disclosed that Region 8 has an allocation of P17 million from the total budget of P900 million for the whole country. He said that the fund will be exhausted for the core activities under OAP such as information dissemination, promotion and establishment of facilities and equipment, technical assistance, trainings, research, development and extension, and implementation of other organic agriculture-related programs and activities.

DA is not wasting time in advocating the program as the briefing paved the way to initially orient the participants on the plan to organize provincial and municipal/city Local Technical Committees for the OAP. It will be patterned from the composition of the National Organic Agriculture Board (NOAB) which is composed of representatives from the DA, DILG, DENR, DAR, DOST, DTI, DepEd, DOH, small farmers organizations, NGO, the academe, and the private sector/agribusiness firms.

Each member-agency/sector will have its role to successfully carry out various activities under the program, RED Gerundio said.

Also present as resource speakers during the activity were OAP Regional Focal Person Engr. Melecia C. Gordillo, OAP support staff and DA-8 Executive Assistant Mr. Onisimo C. Paduano, Eastern Visayas Organic Agriculture Network Chair and VSU Dean Dr. Edwin A. Balbarino, and Ms Ma. Elena A. Mendoza, LGU Ormoc City Marketing Division chief.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines organic farming as a production system that avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators and livestock feed additives.

Organic farming systems rely on crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, legumes, green manures, off-farm organic wastes, and aspects of biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and tilt, support plant nutrients and control insects, weeds and other pests.

RED Gerundio said that similar orientation briefing will be conducted in other provinces in the region in the coming days. (PIA 8/DA8)

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2 comments:

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