BY JOSEF DAVIDON & CLAIRE JOSEPH BUGOY/UM Interns
THE CITY Agriculturalist Office (CAgrO) continues to promote good farming practices to ensure safer food production not only for the environment but also for farmers and consumers as well.
During the iSpeak Media Forum on Thursday, May 8, Dr. Antonio Ochoa, CAgrO officer-in-charge, said that one of their initiatives for 2025 is to promote natural farming to local farmers.
“This year, nag start tayo ng promotion ng natural farming. In fact, earlier this year, we organized the first training on natural farming involving our field technicians, and this time we are starting to plan out how we can start convincing the farmers to go into natural farming,” he said.
The use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides is one of the issues being addressed by this initiative, as Ochoa stressed that these harmful chemicals increase the degradation of soil quality, particularly in rice production. In contrast, natural farming shows long-term improvement of soil over time.
He explained that natural farming is a safer and cheaper alternative for farmers since there is a lesser need for fertilizers and pesticides, resulting in more affordable produce for consumers.
“So it’s safer, pagdating din sa farmer, cheaper din yun ano, kasi di na sila bibili ng fertilizers, ng mga pesticides,” Ochoa added.
CAgrO is actively working to promote interest in natural farming. However, some farmers remain hesitant to adapt to the change despite the harmful effects on the environment and consumers.
“Mahirap i-convince yung farmers kung sila pa ang mag produce ng mga fertilizer at tsaka pesticide,” Ochoa said.
CAgrO conducts ongoing trainings for local communities to further strengthen sustainable practices. The office deployed field technicians to support farmers in adopting the approach more effectively and encouraging others to join by demonstrating its benefits to willing participants. Lastly, they also called on the public to support farmers and help strengthen efforts toward sustainable and natural farming.
