Sunday, September 07, 2008 Groups provide fund for organic farming By Jane Cadalig
THE production of organic vegetables in Benguet got a boost with the involvement of a foreign funding agency and non-government organizations that seek to assist more farmers who wish to engage in organic agriculture.
More than P4 million has been infused for the organic crop production program for Benguet farmers.
The Philippines-Australia Community Assistance Program (Pacap) granted P2,396,500 for the Upscaling Organic Vegetable Production program initiated by the Jaime V. Ongpin Foundation Inc. (JVOFI), with members of the La Trinidad Organic Practitioners or La TOP as the main beneficiaries.
Local governments and JVOFI provided more than P1.8 million as counterpart for the program.
The program aims to increase the number of farmers purely engaging in organic farming from the present 55 members to 200 for the 14 months period of implementation.
JVOFI executive director Rosario Lopez said the project comes in three components - green financing, capacity building and quality control and certification.
The green financing component is a credit facility which seeks to provide farmers P25,000 in loans which would be used for the improvement of their production.
This aims to increase the farmers' monthly income from P4,465 to P9,008 as well as to increase the production are of each farmers from 100 square meters to 200 square meters.
Through the capacity building, more farmers are expected to train other farmers who are interested in becoming organic practitioners.
The certification component will help La TOP members acquire a certification of their products from the country's organic certifying body.
Lody Padilla, Acap program coordinator, said the JVOFI program for the La TOP could serve as a model for the country's agriculture industry, adding that the green financing is something which is new to be implemented in agriculture programs.
Pacap has extended funding assistance to around 320 projects from various parts of the country.
Padilla said the up-scaling program for organic vegetables not only responds to poverty reduction through increasing farmers' income, but also addresses concerns on the environment and health by minimizing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Jeff Laruan, manager of the La TOP cooperative, assured the availability of a market for organic products.
He said organic products are highly demanded by the market while assuring the stability of prices. The cooperative has fixed prices of the crops sold by its members. Prices are subject to a yearly adjustment.
From every 100 square meters of productive lot, Laruan said a farmer could get an average of P5,000 a month as income.
