The Road to Organic Farming

Filipinos are getting conscious about their health. The rise of different incurable diseases among humans maybe the one problem why our farmers are shifting from the "known technology" and getting back to organic farming. Using organic farming, farmers will lessen the use of chemical-based pesticides in their plants. It will also diminish the cost of capital expenditures and turn these budgets into profit.



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Kalinga drafts 5-year organic agriculture roadmap
By Larry T. Lopez


TABUK, Kalinga, Feb. 24 (PIA) – Kalinga agriculture authorities and stakeholders have organized a three-day workshop to draft the province’s five-year agriculture roadmap for 2012 to 2016.

Rice Program Coordinator Joe Casibang of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist said the drafting of the plan is in support to Republic Act 10068 or the Organic Act of 2010, which mandates organic farming in the country.

The roadmap prepared in the workshop, according to Casibang, serves as implementation manual of the organic agriculture program in Kalinga.

Among its major components include the organization of the organic program technical committee; various plans reflecting the needs of the different municipalities; production facility, equipment and infrastructure requirements and sources of organic raw materials.

Government promotes the use of organic technology in agriculture from land preparation, inputs, processing and marketing. The system, Casibang said, covers all the stages in farming from production-consumption.

Explaining why government advocates the technology, Casibang said organic agriculture is based on the globally accepted principles that it has direct benefit on health and ecology. The technology completely avoids the use of chemical-based inputs and implements in the production, processing and marketing of farm products and therefore is safe to human health and the environment, he stressed.

He admitted that though that the technical committee has some issues to address before farmers could adopt this like that fact that gradual shift from traditional to organic farming may affect level of production.

The shift from chemical farming to organic or non-chemical farming may bring lower yield for some time but Casibang explained this has long-term advantage to soil condition that would eventually reduce cost of production and bring higher income to farmers. (JDP/LL- PIA CAR, Kalinga)

Posted in: Agriculture