By Niño Manaog
University Extension Associate
Capiz State University
The Capiz State University (CapSU) Extension Institute represented by its Training Coordinator Eduardo Navarra and University Extension Associate Niño Manaog, joined the Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (Pakisama), a national nongovernment organization advancing rural improvement through farmers’ empowerment, to conduct a livelihood skills training on organic farming and natural farming practices to some 20 farmers of barangay Pinay, Mambusao, Capiz on July 14, 2011 at the Pinay Barangay Hall in Pinay, Mambusao, Capiz.
Ms. Marissa Tuazon, Pakisama’s provincial coordinator for Capiz, along with Mr. Navarra, led the members of Pinay Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative (PFMPC) in learning to prepare IMO concoctions which can be used as foliar fertilizers for their farms.After lectures on organic farming and preparation of IMO concoctions, Pinay Barangay Captain Bernardo Ponce and PFMPC President Reynaldo Cerelo led their group in making the actual concoctions. Working in groups, the farmers sourced the locally available materials from the barangay and took part in preparing Fermented Plant Juice, Fermented Fruit Juice (FFJ), Oriental Herbal Nutrient (OHN) and Fish Amino Acid (FAA).
During the workshops, Navarra stressed on the advantages of organic farming while Tuazon emphasized on the need of Pinay farmers to take stock in the concoctions they prepared for actual use in their farms. The facilitators also encouraged them to consider preparing said concoctions as their prospective means of livelihood.
Thirty-eight-year-old Zosimo Febreo of Sitio Bating, a farmer for ten years, welcomed the idea of preparing IMOs for foliar fertilizes in his farm. He wants to try it out if it indeed lessens the cost of his agricultural input.Reynaldo Cerelo, president of PFMPC, who has been farming since he was 19, recently started vermicomposting in his two-hectare upland farm planted to rice and corn, keeps his fingers crossed, about the benefits of organic farming, saying “Maayong panglawas kag makabulig sa aton nga gastos (It favors human health and also entails less cost).”
Medelin Caraos, 52, currently a barangay kagawad of Pinay, is optimistic about the barangay’s initiative to try organic farming. Aside from willing to try it herself, Caraos expressed full support for Barangay Captain Ponce and said the OHN and the FFJ they prepared will be accordingly distributed to farmers in different sitios.
Sixty-two-year old Vicente Lerona, a retired military who has been farming since 1997, said he would also want to experiment practicing organic farming in his 3,000-sq.m. rented land. He said he may be old but he believes he can profit from the initiative of the barangay to promote organic farming.
On the same day, Pakisama National Operations Manager Felix Zamar met with CapSU President Editha Magallanes at the latter’s office in Fuentes Drive, Roxas City to brief her on the nature and thrusts of their organization. Zamar also stressed on how Pakisama can partner with CapSU in facilitating extension mechanisms for the benefit of the community.
Among others, Zamar sought to establish initial linkage with the academe including CapSU and College of St. Anthony, and help facilitate the business trajectory for the farmers in the project areas.
In response, President Magallanes cited appreciation for Pakisama’s thrusts and committed CapSU’s full cooperation in the field of extension and similar assistance.
Operating and maintaining project areas nationwide including Capiz and Bohol in the Visayas, Pakisama is a national peasant confederation and movement dedicated to the "empowerment of the Filipino small farmers, fishers, rural women, youth, and indigenous peoples." The group also leads the advocacy and implementation of "sustainable agrarian and aquatic reform and rural development and equality of men and women, and responding to our present and historical problem of poverty and injustice."Pakisama is funded by European Commission-Agriterra, a worldwide organization working together with some 80 rural people’s organizations in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe and the Netherlands. Agriterra’s work “ranges from rural-tourism, the improvement of potato production, and the establishment of farmers credit banks to the penetration of new products in the market or of existing products in new markets.”
Zamar also expressed appreciation of the documentation efforts extended by CapSU during the Antique muscovado mills tour of their farmers' cooperative beneficiary in President Roxas, Capiz in April this year.
