PH DA Region 3 Central Luzon Aiming To Be “The Organic Agriculture Capital of the Philippines”

Today, Thursday, 10 March 2022, I am writing about organic farming as preached on Facebook by the Department of Agriculture (DA) Region Field Office 3 (RFO 3); RFO 3 covers the provinces of Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac. RFO 3 says Region 3 has the vision as the “Organic Agriculture Capital of the Philippines.”

That to me is an excellent self-challenge by RFO 3. I say that personally, as a believer in organic farming in the past 57 years starting in 1965 or thereabouts when I discovered “trash farming” in the books by American farmer Edward H Faulkner, published by the University of Oklahoma Press: Plowman’s Folly (1943) and Soil Development (1952).

The RFO 3 website says (rfo3.da.gov.ph):

Region 03 (had) already organic agriculture advocates long before the enactment of the law. The MASIPAG (Magsasaka at Siyentipiko Para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura) NGO in Nueva Ecija has been working towards the sustainable use and management of biodiversity through farmers’ control of genetic and biological resources since 1985. Various organic farmers groups (have been) organized and actively support the implementation of NOAP.
(lower image from organicwibthoutboundaries.bio)

Both images above are those of MASIPAG. I remember coming to know in 2000 that this group was already into organic agriculture.

The website says:

Organic Agriculture (OA) as defined in Philippine Organic Agriculture Act of 2010 or RA 10068 includes all agricultural systems that promote the ecologically sound, socially acceptable, economically viable and technically feasible production of food and fibers. It dramatically reduces external inputs by refraining from the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and pharmaceuticals. Organic refers to the particular farming and processing system, described in the standards and not in the classical chemical sense. The term “organic” is synonymous in other languages (with) “biological” or “ecological.” It is also a labeling term that denotes products considered organic based on the Philippine National Standards for Organic Agriculture.

That OA “includes all agricultural systems that promote the ecologically sound, socially acceptable, economically viable and technically feasible production of food and fibers” is something new to me. And I have a problem with that – if your organic method is new, it may not be socially acceptable at once, but it is still organic!

Those 21 words I quoted (italicized) make a good description but a poor prescription for OA when you are trying something different. I will now apply it in my case. A basic idea I came up with some 57 years ago, and now I have packaged and call it

WEALth –
Weeds-Enriched Automatic Layer Triggering Terrestrial Health.
(I presented this technique last month,16 Feb 2022, in a slightly different name, in “For A Happier & Healthier Habitat Philippines! Triple A For Agriculture,” Farming Advancing Home, Health & Habitat, Blogspot.com.) I am ready to demonstrate WEALth anytime anywhere.

Meanwhile, I am looking for funding for a minimum 2-year WEALth study perhaps with CLSU as host agency. Afterwards, with farmers’ WEALthy farms, DA Region 3 can finally become “The Organic Agriculture Capital of the Philippines!”@517