A passion for organic agriculture

A 50-minute drive from Magallanes, Makati, will take you to the Villegas organic and hobby farm in Malvar, Batangas. It’s a developed agriculturally landscaped organic farm complex that mixes nature’s beauty through ornamental and vegetable gardening in the midst of sustainable growth of agro-forest and fruit trees, crops, livestock, and fish. It’s a farm worth visiting by those with a passion for a wellness and stress-free farming environment.

 The passionate developer of this dream project is Pablito “Pabs” M. Villegas, whose love for farming and agriculture began when he was a child pulling weeds and planting seedlings and watching them grow alongside his father, a small farmer and tenant. His enchantment with the soil made him work for a degree in agriculture from the University of the Philippines-Los Banos, and a master of science in agricultural economics at the University of Georgia in the United States. Taking up these courses, Pabs told me, “strengthened my belief that proper agricultural policies and sustainable farming methods could provide solutions to economic and social problems, particularly rural poverty and food insecurity that have become widespread in the world.”

This conviction was further reinforced as he took up duties as field staff and consultant with a number of international organizations, among them the UNDP Food and Agricultural Organization, World Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, the European Union, and the consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. Altogether, he worked in 20 countries in Asia, the Pacific and Africa, in the fields of agricultural and rural development, agricultural policy and planning, rural microfinance, food security and poverty reduction.

He was too young to  retire, but he did, in December 2003, to make a dream come true. That month, with his savings, he and his wife, Prof. Susan Baladad-Villegas of UP-Manila, formally started the organic and hobby farm in Batangas. The farm produced organic vegetables and herbs by March 2004, introduced free range chicken in 2006, and a small aquaculture pond in 2009, thus establishing an integrated crop-livestock-fish farm with organic fertilizer, crop protection and zero waste management protocols and best practices.

Pabs says the farm adheres to the strict use of biological (natural) crop nutrition and protection system to aid a healthier lifestyle. It serves as a training ground for farming and healthy lifestyle enthusiasts, smallholders and agribusiness professionals as well as children and youth. It has a greenhouse for high-value and off-season crops, a nursery and technology demonstration facilities.

 With an emerging Sustainable Agriculture & Entrepreneurship (SAGE) Learning Center, the farm is now a busy place for “Lakbay Aral” (study tours) in organic and sustainable agriculture with two to three days apprenticeship training in organic farming technologies. Pabs says the four basic principles of organic agriculture (health, ecology, care and fairness), are embedded in the farm owners’ motto, “We Care for your Health; we Nurture the Earth.”

With his passion for wellness and adherence to sustainable agriculture, Pabs developed the farm into a smallholder residential farm estate. The three-hectare complex accommodates nine residential smallholder farms, each farm module provided with piped potable and irrigation water, and access to the SAGE learning center, its greenhouse, nursery, organic inputs and materials production house.

These residential farms can raise assorted lettuce cropping, herb production, natural-grown and free-range colored chickens, ducks, goats, as well as fish. These can easily be raised with the SAGE providing organic fertilizer, vermin-compost, and offering post-harvest handling, food processing, and natural food gourmet demonstrations. Add-on attractions for potential leisure farmers are already existing fruit bearing mangoes, coconut, santol, jackfruit, bananas, mahogany, narra and gmelina trees.

For those who want to own an accessible, productive and affordable organic farm, call Pabs at 0917-8211548 or 9351539 after office hours.

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On another front, anti-smoking advocates have good reason to rejoice. Leading advocate Debby Sy has been passing the good news about our “country . . . taking a big step to promote transparency and integrity in government as well as to promote the right to health.”  

The good news, she says,  is that the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Department of Health (DOH) have issued a Joint Order to Protect the Bureaucracy against Tobacco Industry Interference. This order, says Debby, is consistent with the Art 5.3 Guidelines of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).

WHO FCTC is the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the WHO. It was adopted by the World Health Assembly on May 21, 2003, and was put in force on Feb. 17, 2005. It is considered one of the “most widely embraced” treaties in United Nations history, and today, has 168 Parties.

The WHO FCTC was developed in response to “the globalization of the tobacco epidemic and is an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health. The Convention represents a milestone for the promotion of public health and provides new legal dimensions for international health cooperation.”

The key features of the CSC and DOH Order are the following;

• All government personnel are prohibited from interacting with the tobacco industry unless strictly necessary for its regulation, supervision or control. Any such interaction must be done in a transparent manner.

• For government personnel involved in setting and implementing public health policies, there is an additional requirement for them to inform their respective agencies if they have plans to work for the tobacco industry after leaving their posts.

• All government agencies are required to report any interaction or offer of donation from the tobacco industry. They are also required to amend their Codes of Conduct according to prescribed provisions in the Order.

• Any violation of the order is a ground for administrative disciplinary action.

 According to Debby, the tobacco industry is “the single largest obstacle to many tobacco control policies we are working on. This Order will help people in government understand that the tobacco industry is not a ‘friend’ or a ‘partner.’ It will emphasize the need to treat the tobacco industry differently from other industries.”

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