THE Davao City Agriculturist Office (CAO) recently said that they have already conducted a series of trainings on organic farming to target farm communities.
Although it was but half of their target, this is already a good start. With the lush farmlands and fertile soil of the city, the best way that we can maximize profitability of farmers is to go organic and capture the premium market that ensures less expenses and better profit.
While the city has its own share of plantations that rely on chemical inputs, there is still a wider area that can easily be converted to organic farming simply because the farmers have not yet systemically killed their soil.
We know that while farmers may most of the time be poor, with proper training and market linkage, they can tap into the organic market and reach out to the premium market.
This means that after the CAO has conducted its trainings and have popularized organic farming methods, this should be followed up by market linkage that removes the exploitative nature of the middle men.
With everyone in the planet needing to eat every day, those who produce the food are among the most poor to this day.
This is a clear indication that we are not securing our future in the most sustainable manner that we can, which is to ensure food security and productivity by enabling farmers to nurture their farms so that the very soil they plant on will remain fertile until the generations to come.
That the CAO has hit a snag because the counterpart of the Department of
Agriculture (DA) for its programs has not been released also manifests how government bureaucracy can trip itself up when its focus is on something else other than real public service with the aim to uplift the people’s lives and ensure a better future.
Big words, especially when we continue to receive reports that millions of agricultural funds have been released to Makati City, where not a single farmland stands.