More farmers needed on growing advocacy for organic agriculture

CEBU, Philippines - As the campaign to shift to organic farming grows stronger, the need for more farmers to supply the increasing demand was also being noted. Thus, the recent introduction of the Internal Quality Control System to farmers and farm owners in Cebu who would like to venture in to organic agriculture.

Armand Aquino of ECOCERT, a certification organization founded in France in 1991 and conducts inspections in over 80 countries, said during a recent forum with farmers and farm owners in Cebu that the best way for farmers to be organized and have their own mechanism of quality control is through the IQCS.

Aquino said that most of the farmers belong to the smallholder groups where majority are rice and corn growers that has a land area of 2000 square meters up to three hectares.

“Considering the local market potential, they could be organized in such a way that the economy of scale can be reached,” said Aquino who added that IQCS would be a good way in acquiring this.

Through the formation of an IQCS among farmer organizations, Aquino explained that the fee used for certification, which is very expensive that individual farmers find very costly to manage, would now be able to afford by dividing the fee among the other members.

He said that there are also other advantages of implementing the IQCS like binding the grower to be a marketing group and protecting the integrity of the organic quality of the products.

This is due to the proper system followed under IQCS where all the persons involved in the process like the growers, buyers, storekeepers and handlers are identified, registered and is all knowledgeable of the requirements for organic certification and contracted to ensure compliance.

Aquino explained to the farmers that IQCS are more advantageous than the conventional certification that is often used since the guardians are very strict for rules to be followed properly and the inspections are made regularly.

Aquino encouraged the farmers to join IQCS where basic farmer organizations are welcomed. These are the groups that involve themselves in the production of agricultural products as well as the associations, cooperatives and federations who deal with this kind of business. Federations that are clustered together in order to process and export crops and have the license to do so are also asked to join in and also the companies which have supply contracts that has a large number of farmers.

Requirements for IQCS need the groups to have at least 25 farmers with similar production system, farm units are managed by family labor, a documented manual operation with legal capacity, an average landholding size of three to seven, and has an elected board in the group and a clearly defined activity in the production of organic crops and the marketing of agricultural products. — AJ de la Torre