Over 165,000 organic farmers to benefit from cheaper certification pushed by Senate —Villar

Certification for practitioners of organic farming in the Philippines will be made more affordable with the Senate approval of a bill seeking to boost the national organic agricultural program and promotion of organic product consumption in the country, according to Senator Cynthia Villar on Tuesday.

Among the key provisions of Senate Bill No. 1318 which hurdled the final reading on Monday was the introduction of the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS).

"We have huge potential in organic agriculture but our local organic farmers are disadvantaged because they cannot have their produce or products labelled as organic due to the prohibitive cost of certification. PGS is the solution to that, it will make them more competitive," Villar, chair of the Senate committee on agriculture, said in a statement.

The existing third-party certification costs around P42,000 to P150,000 per crop but through the PGS, a certification can be secured by small farmers at P600 to P2,000, according to the senator.

Villar said this pro-farmer alternative certification system is accepted by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement and also recognized by the Food and Agricultural Organization.

Around 165,900 practitioners of agricultural farming in the Philippines are expected to benefit from the proposed measure.

The senator underscored that the environment will likewise reap benefits in the promotion of organic agriculture.

"Organic farming is good in keeping the soil healthy. We must remember that 95 percent of our food comes from the soil. Soil degradation in the country has reached an alarming 38 percent already. The simplest way of reversing that is to put the nutrients back to the soil through composting and the use of organic fertilizer," she said. -MDM, GMA News