Status of organic agriculture and its agribusiness potentials in the business

The official revival of Organic Agriculture(OA) in the Philippines can be traced back to the issuance of Philippine National Standards for Organic Agriculture and processing by the Bureau of Agriculture and Fishery Standards in October 2003. This was followed by the issuance of Executive Order no. 481 in 2005 by President Hon. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo mandating the Promotion and Development of Organic Agriculture in the Philippines.The major reasons for the conversion to organic farming are:1.) high cost of production in chemical-based farming resulting in low farm net income;2.)health reasons on the part of the producers and consumers; and 3.) environmental reason in response to the deteriorating agro-ecological balance.The status of the organic agriculture industry in the Philippines can be evaluated using the 'value chain model'. A recent national survey (Colting, 2007) on the number of organic practitioners, kind of organic products produced and the area (hectares) devoted to organic agriculture showed an increase in all parameters compared to a survey in 2004. It can be noted also that concerted efforts to address the issues raised from the value chain analysis in the Pearl 2 project Technical paper no.1. particularly on human resources management, technology development, procurement, organic production and organic processing at the levels of inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and services, have been provided by both the NGO's(non-government organizations)and GO's (government organizations) including some universities. In terms of its agribusiness potentials, the organic agriculture industry in the Philippines has tremendous potential for growth considering the proven assurance of higher farm income than conventional agriculture (Chemical-based farming), strong policy support from the government,increasing segment of the Philippines populations shifting to a more healthy lifestyle, and increasing awareness of the irreversible ill-effects of chemical-based agriculture on the environment.