Is the Philippines ready for organic agriculture? policy issues and constraints
2000
Rola, A.C. (Philippines Univ. Los Banos, College, Laguna (Philippines). Inst. of Strategic Planning and Policy Studies)
The goal of the Philippine agricultural policy is self-sufficiency in grains and food security in other crops. To realize this goal, the country needs to increase food production. With this objectives in view, organic agriculture (OA) faces the issue on whether it is yield increasing or not. OA and sustainable agriculture (SA) can be taken as synonymous. There are three approaches in promoting SA while maintaining or increasing yields. These are farmer-centered, consumer-centered, and environment-centered SA. There must be a transition period from chemically-based agriculture to SA. This requires a uniformity of objectives among stakeholders concerned. The country has series of policy goals and initiatives to support OA since the 1960's to 1990's. Despite the past and present initiatives, still a low percentage of the farm population practice SA. Among the policy alternatives to promote SA/OA are: 1) promote farmers' training and other environment-friendly technologies; 2) regulatory policy must be right; 3) provision of incentives to commercialize biorational products; and 4) proper institutional arrangements. The issue on whether the Philippines is ready for OA still needs to be answered. The same is true for question like, are we ready for OA in irrigated lowlands? In the uplands? Which crops are ready for OA practices? Are we in the spectrum of transition from chemically-intensive agriculture to organically-based agriculture?
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