Philippine Organic Agriculture Law

Alcala Signs Implementing Rules for Organic-Farming Law

Organic farming advocates gave Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala a “two thumbs up” for signing the implementing rules and regulation (IRR) for Republic Act 10068.

Otherwise known as the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010, RA 10068 was signed into law by President Arroyo on April 6, 2010. The law primarily aims to promote the practice of organic agriculture and trigger the massive shift from conventional farming to the more ecologically-sound food production practice espoused by going organic.

The crafting of the IRR was initiated by the Department of Agriculture (DA) chief through nationwide consultations among various stakeholders including national and local governments, the academe and citizens’ groups.

Roland Cabigas, managing director of La Liga Policy Institute and a convener of Go Organic! Philippines, said once implemented, the law will boost the promotion and development of organic farming in the Philippines.

The IRR for RA 10068 has been forwarded for review and approval of the congressional oversight committee on agricultural and fisheries modernization.

Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza of Alaminos City, Pangasinan, a convener of Go Organic! Philippines, said the signing of the IRR is considered a key reform achievement of the Aquino administration in promoting sustainable agriculture and food self-sufficiency.

Branganza, concurrently the secretary-general of the League of Cities of the Philippines, promotes organic farming in Alaminos City.

“The IRR for RA 10068 is the first policy document under the Aquino administration that recognizes low carbon development path as a strategic framework in the promotion of Philippine agriculture,” Braganza said.

“The IRR pushes for the promotion of organic agriculture as a framework and strategy that should guide the agricultural aspect of the new Medium Term Philippine Development Plan currently being crafted by the National Economic and Development Authority for 2011-2016,” Cabigas added.

La Liga, a development policy research and advocacy nongovernment organization, was part of the technical working group that crafted and refined the IRR.

“The crafting of the IRR for RA 10068 is a clear demonstration of the new DA administration’s resolve to cause a shift from conventional farming to organic agriculture,” Cabigas said.

More importantly, the IRR aims to address the perennial problem confronting progressive legislation about the absence of funding support, by allocating at least 2 percent of the annual DA budget for organic agriculture programs and projects, he said.

“This will ensure the sustainable development of organic agriculture through the automatic appropriations from the DA’s annual budget certain percent for organic farming,” Cabigas said.

He said the IRR provides for a transition period for the equal application of first, second and third party certification for organic agricultural produce.


By Business Mirror


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Super-Typhoon Megi May Damage 600,000 Tons of Rice

Philippines May Lose 600,000 Tons of Rice from Super-Typhoon Megi

The Philippines, the world’s biggest rice buyer, may lose 600,000 metric tons of the crop as Supertyphoon Megi, the strongest to hit the nation this year, strikes some of the nation’s biggest producing areas, a government official said. Rice futures advanced.

“Once the typhoon hits those areas, the crop will be affected,” Agriculture Undersecretary Antonio Fleta said in a phone interview from Manila. “Even if farmers harvest the damaged rice, they’d have a hard time drying the grain. There may not be much left to sell.”

About 157,000 hectares of land planted to rice in Cagayan and Isabela provinces may be in the path of the typhoon, Fleta said. Megi has sustained winds of 270 kilometers (168 miles) per hour, the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center said, making it a Category 5 storm capable of catastrophic damage.

Half of the planted areas in the two provinces are ready for harvest and the rest are in the reproductive stage, leaving them susceptible to damage, Fleta said.

Damage to Philippine crops would come amid production losses in other countries, further curbing the global harvest and potentially sustaining a rally in prices.

Rough-rice futures have surged 43 percent from this year’s low of $9.55 per 100 pounds on June 30 as flooding in Pakistan and dry weather in the U.S. cut harvests. The contract for November delivery advanced for a fifth consecutive day today, gaining 0.3 percent to $13.655 on the Chicago Board of Trade at 12:10 p.m. Singapore time.

Yields Cut

Potential losses may boost the Philippines’ import needs by 500,000 tons, pushing prices higher in Chicago and Thailand, Chookiat Ophaswongse, former president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said by phone from Bangkok today.

“I think it may have some effect, even on U.S. rice prices,” said Chookiat, who advises the export group. Thai rice prices may rise by as much as $20 a ton, he said.

The price of 100 percent Grade-B Thai white rice, the Asian benchmark, dropped 0.2 percent from a week earlier to $510 a ton in the week ended Oct. 6, according to the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

The Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations pared its estimate for global rice production on Sept. 1 for the second time since April as lower water levels in the Mekong River cut yields in Thailand and Vietnam, the world’s two biggest exporters, and after the floods in Pakistan.

The FAO cut its milled rice production forecast for this year to 467 million tons on Sept. 1, compared with 474 million tons in April, and 472 million tons in a June report.

Missed Forecast

The rice harvest in the U.S., the world’s fourth-largest exporter last year, may be at least 10 percent smaller than estimated, missing a forecast for record output and pushing prices to as high as $17 per 100 pounds, Dwight A. Roberts, president of the U.S. Rice Producers Association, said last week. Roberts correctly predicted the grain would peak at $16 last year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture lowered its estimate for for this year’s U.S. rice paddy production by 5 percent to 11 million tons and forecast that average yield per acre would drop to the lowest since the 2005-2006 season.

The Philippines issued its highest alert for Megi as the storm headed for landfall in Luzon island. The storm made landfall at Divilacan, Isabela province, at about 11:30 a.m., Benito Ramos, administrator at the Office of Civil Defense, said by phone.

The nation’s rough rice production was forecast to be little changed from a year earlier at 16.266 million tons this year, after El Nino, which causes drier-than-normal weather, parched crops, according to the July estimate by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics.

The country’s milled-rice demand was estimated by the USDA at 13.7 million tons this year. That’s about 21 million tons of rough rice, according to Bloomberg calculations, based on the nation’s milling recovery rate of 65 percent.

By Bloomberg


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President Aquino Inaugurates Corn Processing Plant

P-Noy Opens SE Asia’s Biggest Corn-Processing Plant in Isabela

In Photo: Isabela Gov. Faustino Dy III (right) briefs President Benigno Aquino III and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala on the status of corn production in his province shortly after the ceremonial launching of the P750-million corn-processing plant in Reina Mercedes, Isabela, last week. The plant (shown above) will be the biggest in Southeast Asia.

Reina Mercedes, Isabela. Believed to be the biggest in Southeast Asia, the P750-million corn-processing plant launched last week by President Benigno Aquino III in this agricultural town is seen to answer major postharvest problems confronting corn farmers in the region.

Exactly on his 101st day in office, Mr. Aquino spearheaded the inauguration of the multimillion-peso processing facility established by Mindanao Grains Processing Co. (MGPC) and the Philippine Maize Federation Inc. in barangay Nappaccu Pequeño here. MGPC is a unit of the La Filipina Uycongco Corp.’s group of companies.

Attended by thousands of local farmers from all over the country who were on the Seventh National Corn Congress held from Oct. 6 to 8 at the plant site, the President, with Isabela Gov. Faustino Dy III, Vice Gov. Rodito Albano, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and MGPC executives, led by its chairman Dr. Alfonso Uy, switched on the ceremonial button for the official launching of the facility.

“We are grateful to those who initiated this project. Certainly, it will benefit our local corn farmers and the industry, as well,” said Mr. Aquino.

Touted as the biggest in Southeast, the facility could process about 200,000 metric tons of yellow corn and its state-of-the-art bulk silos can store about 60,000 MT of corn grains for more than six months, according to company officials.

Facility officials would buy fresh corn-on-cobs, even with 30-percent moisture content, from farmers and process them into high-quality grains for feed milling. The cob byproduct will not be put to waste, as these will be used as biomass fuel for the dryers.     

Mr. Aquino lauded the company’s use of advanced renewable-energy technologies, saying this will reduce greenhouse gas and will help attain energy self-sufficiency in the next years. 

The corn farmers will be expected to get a 15-percent hike from their average income as traders and other layers of manual corn drying have been eradicated or minimized.

The President promised to augment initial small water-impounding projects and postharvest facilities for farmers in Isabela, aside from national government assistance for corn price subsidy. He did not detail any amount of the pledge.

Constructed on a 7.5-hectare development compound a few kilometers north of Cauyan City, the corn facility was designed to upgrade the quality and standards of corn processing.

Corn is a major ingredient for animal feeds. With a number of corn-growing towns, Isabela in the Cagayan Valley region is the leading corn-producing province in the country.

The facility has the capability of processing 100,000 MT of freshly harvested corn at a time. “With this project, our corn farmers will surely benefit in terms of technology and better return of investments. They will be inspired to produce more,” said Dy.

Mr. Aquino’s presence marked the festive mood of the closing rites at the Seventh Corn Congress held on Oct. 6 to 8. The congress is held annually to gather about 3,000 corn farmers and leaders, government and private agricultural technicians and private stakeholders to discuss issues and concerns for corn development and to propose resolutions for government initiatives and reforms to enhance the competitiveness of the industry.

The corn congress is part of the celebration of the World Food Month this October. 

Mr. Aquino went to the processing shed, where he pressed the button key to dump the corn loaded at the Gator cart and later switched on the corn-sheller control panel to jump-start the operation of the corn facility.

During the program, Philippine Maize Federation president Roger Navarro presented to Mr. Aquino resolutions of the corn congress representatives. Corn advocates had asked the Aquino administration to hike the Department of Agriculture’s corn program budget from P600 million to P1.5 billion, to cover not only production but also postharvest facilities and development program.

Congress participants have also called for a corn farmer representative to the National Food Authority (NFA) Council and to ensure consistency of projects for NFA corn development fund and to remove NFA-imposed local fees and taxes on local government units. They also asked for a repeal of the revenue regulation requiring companies to withhold 1-percent withholding tax of the gross sales of farmers. The resolution was given to Mr. Aquino, who reportedly promised to review the issues and concerns of the corn farmers nationwide.

By Business Mirror


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Philippine LGUs Join Organic-Farming Trend

Philippine LGUs join organic-farming bandwagon to improve peoples’ lives.

Local chief executives from Zamboanga del Sur, Bukidnon, Agusan and Surigao provinces are now embarking on organic agricultural governance to help improve the lives of their constituents who are mostly farmers.

Gov. Antonio Cerilles of Zamboanga del Sur; Mayor Leandro Jose Catarata of Valencia City, Bukidnon; Mayor Nacianceno Pacalioga Jr. of Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur; and Mayor John Mark Billanes of Trento, Agusan del Sur, along with thousands of rice farmers in these localities, are beginning to adopt the organic way of producing the Filipinos’ staple food through the Integrated Rice-Ducks Farming System (IRDFS) now being championed by the Philippine Agrarian Reform Foundation for National Development (Parfund) Inc.

These local government unit (LGU) executives and farmers who have adopted the IRDFS technology have attested to the effectiveness of the IRDF system in ensuring rice sufficiency as well as empowering rice farmers to better their economic status.

“Organic farming, specifically the rice-ducks farming system, really helps us improve the lives of our farmers,” Cerilles said in an interview following the recent launch in Zamboanga del Sur of the IRDF system in the provincial capital, Pagadian City.

The IRDF system, developed by Japanese organic farmer Takao Furuno, diversifies rice farmers’ income sources, thus improving their economic status and effectively mitigates global warming by eliminating methanogens (bacteria that produce methane) in the irrigated-rice paddies. Irrigated rice paddies emit methane, which is produced when bacteria decomposes organic matter.

Methane is acknowledged as the second most important greenhouse gas produced by human activity after carbon dioxide and is responsible for about a fifth of warming effects. Its chief sources are landfill sites, fossil fuel energy and agriculture, particularly rice and livestock farming.

Reiner Wassmann, a biologist specializing in climate change at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), said that methane is at least 20 times more effective at trapping heat in the earth’s atmosphere. He said that methane was responsible for one-fifth of all greenhouse-gas emissions. About 10 percent of the methane comes from rice farming, while other sources include the flatulence of cows and decomposing landfill garbage dumps, he added.

But ducks integrated into the rice paddies for eight hours a day effectively eliminates methanogens and thus reduce emission of methane, according to Chinese scientists Chengfang Li, Cougi Cao, Jingping Wang, Ming Zhan, Weiling Yuan and Shahrear Ahmad who did a research on the “Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Wetland Rice-Duck Cultivation System in Southern China.”

These Chinese scientists found out that IRDF System “will contribute to alleviating global warming” after evaluating the integrated global warming potentials (GWPs) of a rice–duck cultivation system based on methane (CH4) and N2O emission.

By Business Mirror


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