PinoyEcoFarmer

The three-day 3rd Pinoy Organic Festival will open on May 28, 2010 (Friday) at the AANI Herbal Garden and Livelihood Center at the Quezon Memorial Circle, Quezon City. The event will end on Sunday, May 30, 2010.

The organic fest will be participated in by organic farming practitioners, advocates from the government, academe and the private sector. Various organic products will be exhibited for sale by growers and processors of various commodities.

Expected to grace the 3-day festival are:

1. Pablito Villegas (trustee of the Organic Produce Trade Association, owner of Villegas Organic Farm, and convenor for Asia of the Intercontinental Network of Organic Farmers Organization)
2. Sen. Miguel Zubiri (one of the principal authors of the Philippine Organic Agriculture Law)
3. Rep. Proceso J. Alcala (Congressman of Quezon Province and a staunch advocate of natural farming)
4. Armand and Teresa Saniano of the Earthkeepers (Teresa Saniano write a book on natural farming)

The Quizon Farm in Antipolo City will also display live turkeys as well as processed turkey meat products.

The exhibits, the forums and seminars are open free to the public. The event organizer, in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, is the Agri-Aqua Network International (AANI). Pol Rubia is AANI’s vice president and operations manager.

See you there.

Note: Article is a repost.

Here is another reference material for natural farmers entitled Nature Farming Manual: A handbook of preparations, techniques and organic amendments inspired by Nature Farming and adapted to locally available materials and needs in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines.

Excerpts from the Background:

Organic agriculture in The Philippines is developing rapidly and farmers have adopted and adapted an array of techniques inspired by a number of different philosophies including biodynamic farming, permaculture and Nature Farming. Of particular interest to organic agriculture practitioners in The Philippines is the Nature Farming approach which was first advocated by the Japanese philosopher Mokichi Okada in 1935. This system promotes a holistic and sustainable approach to agriculture, with the aim of protecting life and the integrity of the natural world. The basic principles of Nature Farming are akin to those advocated by Rudolf Steiner in 1924 when he laid the foundations of biodynamic agriculture. Both systems of thought arose in response to problems that were, even then, associated with industrial agriculture, inorganic fertilizer use and monocultures. A fundamental principle that has evolved with these alternative agricultural systems is that a farm should form a basic unit of self-sustainability. The use of native materials can restore and enhance the fertility and vitality of the farm.

A key component of sustainable organic farming in the developing world is the use of locally produced and low cost biomass resources to rebuild and maintain soil productivity. Organic fertilizers and soil amendments can be produced in a number of different ways. This manual focuses on the preparation of organic soil and plant amendments using microbiological processes, as inspired by Nature Farming. Although biodynamic farming also uses preparations that may potentially stimulate microbial activity of the soil, these have not yet been fully adapted to the indigenous plant materials in the Philippines.

In The Philippines, there are numerous small-scale farming endeavors occupying a mosaic of environments spanning a broad gradient of biotic and abiotic conditions. In this context it is preferable to avoid inputs of commercial EM preparations in favor of locally produced IMO preparations.

Click on Cover Page to Download