Wednesday, February 27, 2008 Colting: Our sense of humus By Rogelio Colting R4D Corner
LAST Tuesday, we said in our column that we will be writing on organic agriculture staring February 25 issue.
We shall now feature in particular some accomplishments of the BSU Organic Agriculture Program (BSU-OAP), which was launched as early as 2005 in the university.
Why are we promoting the revival of organic agriculture in the university? Before attempting to answer this question, we would like to inform our readers that the indigenous people of the Cordillera are the pioneers of the practice of organic agriculture.
In the 1950's, its practice was overtaken by the so-called chemical-based farming wherein inorganic fertilizers and agro-chemicals are intensively used.
Recently though, many farmers are going back to organic agriculture because of the increasing demand for clean and organically produced food crops.
In addition, producers and consumers alike have increasing awareness on the negative impact of chemical inputs on human health and in the environment or Mother Earth.
Actually, organic agriculture is being practiced in developed countries like in the US and is being promoted by the University of California, Sta. Cruz, specifically the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems; and in Germnay particularly Witzenhausen at the University of Kassel, Germany where a BS and MS curriculum on organic agriculture are offered.
The Benguet State University (BSU) is promoting organic agriculture because it believes that it is the best way of producing food products in a sustainable way and at the same time minimizing environmental degradation.
The program's framework is premised on the Organic Certification Center of the Philippines (OCCP) definition on organic agriculture, which is: "the use of agricultural methods and practices that are considered to be ecologically sound and sustainable."
Inspired by this mantra, the BSU-OAP aims to achieve the following: produce organically grown crops for consumers, generate technologies that promote long term productivity of farms, develop a market for organically grown crops, and produce graduates who will support the organic agriculture industry.
To achieve these aims, the program has 10 components: Education and Curriculum Development; Research and Development on organic agriculture; Training and Extension Services; Commercial Production of Organic products; Organic Fertilizer Production Management; Biocontrol Agents; Processing of Organic Products; Marketing of Organic Products; Policy and Advocacy; and Support Services Networking.
An organic agriculture demonstration farm has already been established. This is located at the Balili experimental farms.
Managed by Dr. Jose Balaoing, a soil scientist by discipline, the demonstration farm has standing crops: like lettuce, strawberry and has a vermi-composting area.
The organically grown strawberries sell at P120 per kilo.
Also in place is the program's "healing organic garden" located near the College of Agriculture Building.
The garden is planted with 7 clusters of crops, which are called sub gardens unified into one garden; herbal, fruit, flowers, vegetables, cactus and salad garden.
The garden exudes serenity and cleansing atmosphere hence, anyone who visits the garden experiences renewed strength and gets "healed."
For the education and curriculum development component, the BSA curriculum was already enriched to include courses or topics on the principles of organic agriculture.
A short term certificate course composed of 8 lessons or modules will be offered starting April 2008.
Another curriculum in the drawing board is the Agroecology course module on organic agriculture to be offered in June 2008 through distance education mode together with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid tropics (Icrisat) based in Bangalore, India.
For these undertakings, participants from government and private entities are invited to participate.
To substantiate and strengthen its framework, the BSU-organic agriculture program has its production standards for organic Arabica Coffee, strawberry and vegetables and adapted a 5-year development plan covering July 2006 to June 2011.
Why organic agriculture? As a speaker once said "we should not forget our sense of humus."
For details on the short courses and other organic agriculture activities in BSU you can call the Dean of the College of Agriculture at telephone number 422-4278.
