PinoyEcoFarmer

With a year-round produce of vegetables, rice and other crops, people of Tara, a small outlying farming community of Himamaylan City in Negros Occidental, consider themselves very lucky. The harvests came even when last year hundreds of small farmers across the province suffered the brunt of a drought brought about by the El Niño phenomenon causing erratic weather . It is not so much because the Tara villagers are a hardy lot, according to Solflorename Puentespina, a former rebel priest who now works for a nongovernment organization.

A trail-blazing invention allows them to bring irrigation water up-slope from the Bingig River to their farms 10 meters above the source. The Tara Hydraulic Ram Pump System won for the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. (Aidfi) the top prize of the 2010 BBC (British Broadcasting Corp.) World Challenge, a global competition rewarding grassroots projects that give something back to their communities.

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In today’s urgency to go all natural and green, many industries are making an effort to evaluate their old ways and embrace new (or old yet effective) methods to turn out quality products without compromising the already fragile ecology. Hog-raising is one of those industries that is seeing an earnest revamp. This endeavor is locally being spearheaded by a newly-formed group dubbed the Natural Piggery Movement.

Led by its convenor Gil Carandang, the Natural Piggery Movement (NPM) is an organization of committed hog raisers advocating the cause of mitigating harmful environmental effects of pig production. The NPM aims to create balance between pork production, food safety and environment protection through the natural way of raising hogs.

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On-going studies continue to suggest new ways at looking at natural herbs, paving the way to more business opportunities, like what these companies have found:

DXN
Products: Reisho Gani (RG), Ganocelium (GL) and Lingzhi Coffee
Mode of distribution: Multi-level marketing
Unique Selling Point: Ganoderma Mushroom as key ingredient to its products. The company’s “One World One Market” approach, which means every step of the process—from cultivation, processing and packaging, to marketing of the products— is carried out solely by the company under strict quality control.

R.L.N. Malunggay Herb Tea Manufacturing
Products: Sun Angel Malunggay herb tea, powder and capsules
Mode of distribution: Mercury Drug outlets and through its web site (www.malunggayherbtea.com)
Unique Selling Point: Uses 100 percent malunggay (moringa) leaves in their products, the company being a staunch supporter of breastfeeding, of which malunggay is believed to be a natural aid.

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Larry Milloroso, a 43-year old farmer from Barangay Dongon East in Numancia, Aklan is glad he has shifted to natural rice farming. Among the reasons he practices natural farming in his farm include getting a good harvest, additional profit, healthier environment, and chemical-free rice on the table.

Larry cultivates a 5,500-square meter irrigated ricefield that he planted to NSIC Rc 120 this season. In Aklan where farmers’ landholdings are commonly small and contiguous, this area can already be considered good enough to produce rice for family consumption and have some extra harvest for sale. He also grows latundan banana on 1,000 square meters, and mungbean and squash in the adjacent 1,000 square meters.

Larry learned about natural farming from PINA Foundation Inc., a non-government organization funded by the Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund which aims to help farmers increase production and income through sustainable agriculture. In 2003, PINA Foundation office in Kalibo, Aklan conducted a six-month season-long farm school in Numancia where Larry was one of the 15 enrollees.

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A 10-hectare organic farm in Galicia in Pidigan, Abra, has been drawing Cordillera farmers who want to learn about its sustainable and environmental farming practices.

Galicia Farms has served as a model to agriculture experts who advocate a shift back to traditional farming in this age of expensive chemical-based agriculture, said Pura Sumangil, director of Social Development Center (Sodec) of the Diocese of Bangued, which runs the farms. Sumangil said the farm has been promoting environment-friendly technology and has helped various groups in producing and marketing their products. The farm has a demonstration field and offers training on seed banking of traditional seeds, organic farming and organizational development. Sodec has been running the farm since the late 1990s after its former director, Sister Celerina Zabala, introduced organic farming in Bangued communities, Sumangil said.

“Even before the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010 (Republic Act 10068) came into the picture, the Department of Agriculture has been coming here to conduct training and lectures among farmers interested in organic farming. This farm has become their show window for the rest of the Cordillera,” she said.

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I came across products developed by scientists of Biotech UP Los Banos in Laguna which I think are very useful in farming and other applications.

Above: Taken from BioLife (Quarterly Magazine of Biotechnology) Vol1 No2 April-June 2005 Issue

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open source video, online video platform, video streaming, video solutions Food Inc is an 2009 American documentary film directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner. The film examines corporate farming in the United States, concluding that the meat and vegetables produced by agribusiness have many hidden costs and are unhealthy and environmentally-harmful. The film is narrated by Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. The documentary generated extensive controversy in that it was heavily criticized by large American corporations engaged in industrial food production.

Watch this and you decide.