Advocate: More profit with organic farming

ASIDE from its health and environmental benefits, farmers are expected to have lesser expense and more profit when they venture into organic farming compared to non-organic farming, said officials of the Association of Davao Organic Advocates (ADOA).

“For non-organic, others say their income is already okay but in reality, it is actually not. In gross, the production is huge but if you look at their profit, it is actually small because their expenses are also huge. But in organic farming, you do not buy very expensive inputs such as fertilizer and chemical because, we for example, taught them how to produce their own fertilizers,” said ADOA member Josilito Tabora who was a guest during the weekly press conference Kapehan sa Dabaw in SM City Davao on Monday, November 6.

He added organic products have value-added components such as the nutrients that can be derived that are not available for non-organic products, thus it is slightly more expensive than the latter.

As they had been training their member-farmers, Tabora said part of the training is the pest control in a natural way or through indigenous practices. He said the members are taught alternative pest management. Instead of using synthetic pesticides, natural remedies are being taught to the farmers. Tabora said through this, farmers will be reminded of the old ways of pest management which are much healthier than what is currently on trend.

“In the absence of chemicals, there are many nutrients developed. This has been proven by studies including those in the United States…Aside from that, these chemicals that penetrated the plants that we eat, will soon affect what we eat,” Tabora added.

About 20 exhibitors are showcasing their organic products at the Organic Farmer’s Market in Rizal Park every Thursdays and Fridays and this was where the creation of ADOA started.

According to ADOA vice president Maxey Atog, they had costumers that come back to them a week after purchase, saying their products took longer time to rot compared to the other non-organic products available in the market.

“As the customers said, when they place our products in the refrigerator, it takes about 15 days before it starts to yellow compared to non-organic products that would already start yellowing and show signs of rotting after three days,” said Atog.

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