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BY TIFFANY ANNE TAN
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BACOLDO City— The province of Negros Occidental is a way ahead of other provinces when it comes to converting agricultural areas into organic farms.
There are 400,000 hectares of agricultural land in the province.
Of these, more than 16,000 hectares or 4.8 percent were already into organic farming covering almost 17,000 farmers, said Regional Director Joyce Wendam of the Department of Agriculture (DA) – Negros Island Region (NIR).
The province is expected to be the first in the country to meet its organic farm conversion target (five percent of the total area) by 2017, Wendam said.
The five percent conversion target is mandated by Republic Act 10068 or the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010.
“We are optimistic that with the introduction and delivery of more projects and assistance, Negros Occidental can meet and even surpass the five percent target, or about 20,000 hectares of organic farms by 2017,” said Wendam.
Wendam was among the officials who attended the opening of the 11th Negros Island Organic Farmers’ Festival (NIOFF) in Bacolod City on Nov. 15.
NIOFF promotes organic agriculture and aims to provide a wider market for organic farmer-producers./PN
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