THE City Government of Davao will push organic farming and farm tourism this year.

During the Pulong-PulongniPulong (PPP) last Tuesday, September 18, Councilor Marissa Abella said that she has always been into organic farming and that her committee is now eyeing areas to be developed for such.

“Actually, atong Department of Tourism (DOT), they are pushing for farm tourism,” Abella said, adding that they will have to start from small farms to develop a product.

“We don’t just tell the farmers to plant but help them access market especially if the products developed are good,” she said.

She said that she was inspired by the way Hawaii has preserved its agricultural industry and practices, especially the coffee farm, when she went there as one of the delegates along with Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio last September 10.

“It is a coffee farm where tourists have been visiting,” Abella said, adding that the 12,000-hectare farm has more than 340,000 visitors in a year and earns $5 million per year.

“Hawaii is not only for the plantation but also for farm tourism,” Abella said.

It is possible for the city to learn from the “best” practices of Hawaii in terms of agriculture as the city has a wide agricultural land.

“So we’ve seen areas like Paquibato, that there are elevation na good for Arabic coffee,” Abella said, adding that it will help the Indigenous Peoples as they own ancestral lands. (LHC)