THE Department of Agriculture in Negros Island Region (DA-NIR) is eyeing a Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) certification for about 17,000 organic farmers in the province for them to acquire better position in the local market.
DA-NIR Director Joyce Wendam, who led the PGS launching during the first NIR Regional Organic Agriculture Congress at the Capitol Social Hall in Bacolod City on Thursday, July 27, said PGS is more viable especially to small organic farmers since the membership fee is only P100.
However, PGS only covers products for local market. For farmers to saturate both domestic and export markets, they have to acquire third-party certification with total expenses of about P75,000.
“There is no competition between third-party and PGS, we are just promoting more the latter specifically for local market,” Wendam said, adding that since many organic farmers in the province are small, participatory guarantee is a more viable system.
PGS is the stepping stone towards obtaining a third-party certification. Meaning, organic farmers should be equipped first in saturating the local market then eventually venture into exports, Wendam said.
The Republic Act 10060, or the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010, only included the third-party certification.
Wendam said the PGS provision with validity period of one year is already included in the proposed amendment of the law. Under which, there is also a push to extend the validity of third-party certifications from one year to three years.
Wendam said the number of organic farmers in the province has been decreasing due to high third-party certification fee and short validity period.
Out of nine certified farmers in the province since 2010, only two are remaining.
“We want all our farmers in the province to be PGS certified so that they can increase their sales,” Wendam said, adding that PGS is one of the performance measures in the market.
The DA-NIR said the launching activity is aimed at preparing and equipping the local organic farmers to be ready prior to the approval of the amended law providing PGS certification among organic producers in the country.
Farmers practicing organic system of farming may already sell their products in the market, however, they cannot yet label it as organic, the agency said.
Once approved, the DA will provide certification subsidy to the farmers as well as technical assistance to equip them in passing the set standards, it added.