Yap urges farmers to shift to organic agriculture

MANILA, Philippines – Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap is urging farmers to adopt the Department of Agriculture’s organic agriculture program for more profitable production and to protect the environment and guarantee the sustainability of the country’s land resources.

Yap is concerned over the reckless use of the country’s natural resources and overdependence on chemical-based pesticides and fertilizers that have had harmful, and possibly permanent, effects on the environment.

“In many parts of the country,” Yap pointed out, “the soil is by now so degraded that it has become virtually impossible to grow food without costly farm inputs.”

Yap warned that “if we are to continue on this course, then we will soon be remembered as the generation that left behind a bare cupboard for its children.”

He said organic agriculture, will achieve three things – the long-term management of the country’s soil and water resources; food security and poverty reduction and conserving productive capacities and improving economic competitiveness.

Organic farming, according to Yap, seeks to wean away farmers from the use of chemical inputs.

It will help pare farm production costs amid the fluctuating costs of petroleum-based fertilizers which have increased by about 300 percent over the last five years before returning to their normal price levels in the last quarter of 2008, Yap pointed out.

 “Let us remember that the Filipino farmers need nothing other than what their environment richly provides: clear water, clean air, a treasure of forests to protect their farmlands, and an abundance of life in the hills and rivers of their illustrious heritage,” he said.

Under a program called National Organic Agriculture Tamang Abono, the DA with the help of government units and the private sector, will establish community-based composting facilities.

The composting facilities can provide organic fertilizer for 100 hectares; and upgrade existing Bio-N mixing plants to maximize the production of Bio-N, a microbial fertilizer that can replace 30 percent 50 percent of the total nutrient requirements of crops.

The DA will provide technical support to non-government organizations for their respective organic agriculture programs.