KAUSWAGAN, Lanao del Norte, Philippines — Advocates are calling on the government to take further steps to cultivate a good atmosphere for promoting organic agriculture in the country. At the conclusion of the weeklong 6th Organic Asia Congress here on Friday, the more than 1,200 participants — including 245 foreigners — recognized the importance of favorable government policy to soften the ground and make organic agriculture take root throughout farming localities. Small segmentOf the country’s 1,489 municipalities, only 251 have organic agriculture programs even as Republic Act No. 10098, or the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010, mandates the promotion of this farming mode, noted Arnado, who is president of the country’s League of Organic Agriculture Municipalities, Cities and Provinces, and sits in the National Organic Agriculture Board, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA). A 2017 study done by the Research Institute for Organic Agriculture and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement cited “the very significant and very encouraging growth of organic agriculture” in the country in 2015.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer June 14, 2023 10:10 UTC