MOUNTAIN PROVINCE

More Mt Prov farmers into organic technology
BY JULIET SALEY

BONTOC, Mt. Province - The use of organic fertilizers is now being popularized by farmers, ornamental and fruit growers in Mt. Province.

Mary Buanzi of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist said production of organic fertilizers in the province started in 1985 which was done manually. “Materials used in preparing the organic fertilizers were chopped resulting to low production. It was not even sufficient to supply the OPAG’s nursery.”

To help facilitate production of organic fertilizers to meet needs of farmers, ornamental and fruit growers, the provincial government constructed a fertilizer production center and purchased a shredding machine.

“The shredding machine is of great help in the preparation of organic fertilizer. More cuts are done and shredded materials are finer,” Buanzi added.

A minimal price for composted fertilizer is charged according to classification. A 35 kg bag of screened compost is sold at P200.00 while the 35kg bag unscreened compost is sold at P100.

Buanzi said using organic fertilizers in growing vegetables, rice and citrus is health beneficial compared to synthetic ones.

Organically grown foods have higher nutritional value than commercially grown foods, she added.

Aside from OPAG, the Bontoc-Lagawe Apostolic Vicariate has also been strongly advocating organic farming technology to its lay faithful.

The promotion of this technology was spearheaded by Fathers Marion Buyagawan and Valentin Dimoc. They had conducted series of trainings on organic farming technology in the different mission stations of Mt. Province and Ifugao.

The two priests had also conducted trainings on how to prepare organic feeds for pigs which they themselves have been doing in raising pigs .

An accidental beneficiary of this training was Agnes Saley of Sabangan who happened to be visit her relatives in Sagada when she was invited to attend the seminar on how to prepare organic feeds which was conducted by Fr. Buyagawan.

After the training, she tried it and found out organic feeds were cheaper and safer than commercial feeds.

She pigpens were without much odor. She said it needs patience in preparing this kind of feeds but it also pays in terms of lesser expenses for feeds resulting to bigger income for the pig raiser.