“Aside from being used as a substitute to chemical fertilizer, the wood vinegar can also be applied to lengthen the shelf life of fruits after harvest. In an eight-hour daily operation, the facility could produce seven to nine liters of wood vinegar sold at ₱90 per liter as farmgate price and ₱100 per liter at the Municipal Food Depot. The daily operation of the facility gives value to coconut wood and other farm wastes, thereby providing an additional income source to farmers. The wood vinegar, as a dark liquid produced through the distillation of coconut wood and other materials, is being used as a soil conditioner, plant, and seed germination enhancer, and as a replacement for chemical fertilizer. Tubungan farmers’ receptiveness to innovations seemed unbounded that even Japan’s ‘Mokusaku’ or the wood vinegar technology was adopted to enhance their vegetable growing. Left-over vegetables and fruits displayed at the Municipal Food Depot are recycled and cooked as supplemental feeding for pigs. “We bought nine greenhouses, three cultivators, 25 drums for rainwater harvesting, and two units of wood vinegar facility,” shared Tacardon who was also the national champion in the 2016 search for outstanding agricultural extension worker (AEW) for organic agriculture.Īside from growing crops, they are also raising hogs in the eco-park employing the ‘Baboyang Walang Amoy’, a cost-reducing technology highly suitable for backyard farming. When Tubungan topped the National Search for Outstanding Organic Agriculture Municipality in 2015, they procured and established additional support facilities with a ₱6 million project prize from DA. As a response, the agency’s Rice, Organic Agriculture, High Value Crops Development, and the Bottoms Up Budgeting (BuB) Programs put up the Farmers Learning Center, vermicomposting facilities, biological control laboratory, and greenhouses in Brgy. Several projects were proposed by the Municipal Agriculture Office in 2014 for funding by DA with the goal to advance their local organic agriculture endeavors. Although the production volume of crops declined in the initial years of transition, the use of organic substitutes brings back soil nutrition to obtain optimum crop yield in the long run. Bacan served as the gateway to demonstrate the different organic farming technologies and innovations for the farmers to replicate and adopt in their respective fields and backyard lots. The development of the 1.7-hectare Municipal Eco Park in Brgy. Each barangay was provided with 50 bags of bokashi fertilizer, vermicomposting facility, greenhouse, and power sprayers,” according to Tacardon. “We also conducted Farmers Field School (FFS) on Organic Agriculture in the barangays of Tabat, Male, and San Jose.
Asuncion Tabucuran broadened farmers’ grasp of technologies through the series of training, and had distributed farm inputs such as organic seeds and fertilizers to farmers and adopters.
To sustain the agency’s efforts in persuading farmers to shift into organic practices, the local agri office in Tubungan led by former municipal agriculturist Ma. The DA’s training on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) had further ignited the farmers’ willingness to dodge chemical farming.Īssociation president Antonio Tadiaque shared “We grow vegetables, lettuce, pechay, black rice, livestock, and poultry animals organically in more than 100 hectares of farm areas in Tubungan by almost 200 local organic farming adopters.” And as mandated in the Republic Act 10068, we should convert at least five percent of the agricultural areas into organic farms,” said Marjorie Tacardon, the municipal agriculturist of Tubungan.Įmphasizing the need to gradually transform their areas to boost production of safe food and to avert further damage in the environment caused by the oblivious application of synthetic inputs, the Tubungan Vegetable Producers Association (TVPA) in Iloilo which initially had 45 members started to venture such precedent step since 2012.
Second, we need to protect the environment. Through organic farming, we could produce safe food to consume for a healthier and longer life. “We value quality over quantity in our food production. Having to produce safe and quality crops and animals with lesser farm expenses and reduced threats to the environment prompts the farmers in a fourth-class town in Iloilo to champion organic agriculture. As consumers are getting more mindful about their health and diet, the preference for organically grown foods over crops treated with chemicals rapidly grows as time passes.