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La Liga Policy Institute (La Liga), a national development organization, announced yesterday that some 270 rice farmers from Pangasinan province had graduated from its “Organikong Palayan (OP)” field-school program.
In an emailed statement, La Liga said the farmers have vowed to apply in their own farms their newly-acquired knowledge and skills in organic agriculture.
“The graduation today of hundreds of new organic rice farmers is regarded as a new milestone in our advocacy for sustainable, organic and ecological agriculture,” La Liga Managing Director Roland Cabigas said.
“Organikong Palayan program helps restore soil fertility, reduce expenses for agricultural inputs and increase the incomes of farmers and the farming community. In the medium term, it significantly contributes in the implementation of the Department of Agriculture’s strategy of attaining food and staple sufficiency during the administration of President Benigno Aquino 3rd,” Cabigas added.
La Liga and the Go Organic Philippines movement have been advocating for sustainable, organic and ecological agriculture in the country for years now. These two groups earlier pushed to have an organic agriculture legislation in the country. In 2010, the Philippine Organic Agriculture Act (R.A. 100681) was signed into law.
The farmers then enrolled in the SLT and participated in its 14 sessions of production of organic fertilizer and actual organic rice farming in eight designated learning farms (two for each of the LGU project areas).
