"WE ARE looking at going mainstream with the establishment of organic hubs.”

This was stressed by Provincial Agriculturist Edmundo Raul Causing on the sidelines of the opening of the 15th Negros Island Organic Farmers Festival at the Provincial Capitol Grounds in Bacolod City yesterday, November 23.

In fact, organic farms in the province have widened to 2,000 hectares, he added.

Running until November 26, the festival is participated by 80 organizations and individuals who are into organic farming.

Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, in a message read by Third District Board Member Andrew Montelibano, who chairs the Sangguniang Panlalawigan’s Committee on Agriculture, said the province is conscious of the urgency to pursue organic farming.

Negros Occidental, he said, has endeavored for its advancement and practice and because of that it has earned several national awards over the years including the “Performing Organic Agricultural Province.”

"As we open the 15th Negros Island Organic Farmers Festival after a hiatus due to the pandemic, we reaffirm our goal to enhance the market potential of our organic products,” he said.

Organic agriculture needs not be limited to mere production, it has to be enhanced by entrepreneurship and it has to be a viable source of income, Lacson also said.

The governor also underscored that he delivered the Annual State of the Children's Report a week ago where he renewed the generation's commitment to the Negrense children, to empower and usher them to the future.

“However, the present modern world is faced with a great deal of challenges,” Lacson admitted, as he cited climate change and the destruction of natural habitat, gross inequality and poverty, food and water security, among others.

“As a matter of public policy and personal commitment, we must oblige to meet our needs without jeopardizing the capacity of the future generation to meet their own needs," the province’s top official added.

Moreover, under Section 2 of the Organic Agricultural Act of the Philippines, the promotion of the practice of organic agriculture will cumulatively condition and enrich the fertility of the soil, increase farm productivity, reduce pollution and destruction of the environment, prevent the depletion of natural resources, further protect the health of farmers, consumers, and the general public, and save on imported farm inputs.

"It is time that we show the world that Negros is more than just sugar, that Negros is the place where you can succeed if you try, where a healthy economy can advance by what we make and innovate in a sustainable manner," he added.*