SOME 85 mass leaders coming from different regions of the country representing cooperatives, people’s and non-government organizations, church-based institutions, and agricultural students gathered in Makilala, Cotabato recently to banner their unequivocal call to debunk conventional agriculture.

After a three-day discussion with the theme “Stewards of the 3rd Day through Sustainable Agriculture,” the leader representatives, under the umbrella of the Federation of Peoples’ Sustainable Development Cooperative (FPSDC), executed a manifesto titled: “Makilala, Cotabato Declaration.”

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The three-day event was held at Don Bosco Hills,Makilala, Cotabato last Friday, September 17, 2009.

The strongly worded declaration was signed and adopted by the member cooperatives of FPSDC after the three-day sharing of experiences on different farming models that collectively showed how sustainable agriculture as an alternative agricultural paradigm has advanced farming communities around the country.

The convergence also featured appropriate technologies, methods, and approaches on sustainable agriculture—natural, organic, ecological, and bio-dynamics agriculture.

Calling on those running the state of affairs, the declaration challenged the national government “to give credence to that republic tenet that government is for, of, and by the people and to cease and desist from being a government of the elite, rich agri-business sector, local compradors, and the dealers of chemical fertilizers and pesticides who are raking millions, if not billions of pesos, out of conventional agriculture.”

“The present agricultural paradigm (conventional) has painted a pitiful scenario of hunger where those who are feeding the nation are going hungry. While it aims to produce to sustain life, it attacks and destroys our resource base which is our very means to life. The choicest of lands which are planted with all kinds of cash crops are just meant to serve the consumerist lifestyle of the Northern People while our country has to import some two million metric tons of rice every year to meet the food requirement of its hungry people,” part of the declarations reads.

Christie Rowena Plantilla, general manager of FPSDC, lamented that conventional agriculture has erased indigenous technologies and native plant varieties not tied to chemical farming.

They have declared further that “despite the massive environmental destructions, our agricultural lands are subjected with impunity to the continuous bombardments of chemical fertilizers and toxic chemicals.”

It is their contention that conventional agriculture has only been successful in further impoverishing the rural communities and in tying farmers to heavy debts.

Plantilla said the “Makilala, Cotabato Declaration” is just a start as they enjoin environment advocates, social activists, and sustainable agriculture supporters in the crusade to “to heal the blighted land back to life, to stop the massive exploitation of the delicate resources which are only ours to protect for the coming generations, and to free the people from the pangs of hunger and poverty through sustainable agriculture.”