Davao City Promotes Organic Agriculture, Dads Throw Support

DAVAO CITY - The Davao City government is now throwing its all-out support to organic agriculture, a timely move with the growing demand for safe and healthy food products and the consciousness for environmental-friendly farm practices.

Councilor Condrado Baluran, chairperson of the city council committee on agriculture, said the local government is supportive of organic agriculture farmers and in fact encourages other farmers to also practice the alternative agriculture.

“We know the dangers, all the harmful effects of these synthetic chemicals to people’s health and the environment and because of this, the city government is supportive of organic agriculture…we would like to see more and more farmers shifting from their current practice to the safer one,” Baluran said.

There are currently around 2000 organic farmers all over Davao City with around 300 hectares of farmlands all devoted to organic food production.

In a resolution passed recently in the city council, Baluran urged the city government to “promote, support and strengthen organic agriculture.”

The resolution calls on the city government to strengthen capacity building programs on organic agriculture to increase production of organically grown crops; enhancement of marketing and promotion strategies for organic products.

And development of policies in support of organic farmers; building of people’s organizations-nongovernmental organizations-government organizations institutional mechanism for wider collaboration of efforts in organic agriculture.

The resolution implored the policy of the state to protect and promote the right of the people to health and the duty of the state to provide the people with a balanced and healthful ecology.

It also quoted the government policy to “promote agriculture development, conserve environmental resources and promote social equity and product access to foreign and domestic markets of agriculture and fishery commodities.”

In December 2005, the national government issued executive order 481 or the Promotion and Development of Organic Agriculture in the Philippines. The said order aimed at promoting organic agriculture as a farming scheme especially in rural farming communities.

The same order also aimed at giving guarantee to food and environmental safety through ecological approach to farming.

“Consumer awareness of the environment cost of environment agriculture, such as deteriorating quality of drinking water and soil and the impact of agriculture on landscape and wildlife is increasing,” Baluran noted in the resolution.

In various organic farmer gatherings and consultation, one of the problems that confronted organic agriculture includes the lack of government support and mechanism to ensure the sustainability of the production.

Other problems identified were the lack of regular supply of organic products in the market; lack of marketing strategies and market facility for organic products; lack of farm-to-market roads; lack of consumer consciousness on organic products and farming practices. (Jef Tupaz)