BSU certified producer of organic fruits, veggies

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Benguet State University is now a certified producer of organic herbs, vegetables and fruits.

This is now possible as the Organic Certification Center of the Philippines has officially released BSU’s Organic Certificate No. 0038F10 effective November 23, 2010 to Nov. 23, 2011.

According to Dr. Joe Balaoing who manages the BSU organic demonstration farm, BSU is the first academic institution in the Philippines to acquire such certification.

He added this will be a big leap in BSU’s organic agriculture program.

Products of the farm specified in the certification include: American amaranth, ampalaya leaves, asparagus beans, bell pepper, broccoli, bush beans, cabbage, camote tops, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cherry tomato, Chinese cabbage, coriander, cucumber, dill, eggplant, fennel, French beans, garden pea, lettuce, okra, onion leeks, pechay, potato, spinach, strawberry, sugar beets, sweet basil, talinum, upland kangkong and zucchini.

BSU earlier declared itself as pro-organic on Sept. 14, 2004. This was supported by the Regional Development Council-CAR through RDC Excom Resolution No. CAR-011.
The same resolution called for the promotion of organic agriculture in the Cordillera.

BSU is also certified as producer/processor of Organic Arabica Coffee since 2008 by the Institute of Marketecology (IMO) based in Switzerland. – J. Sabado-Tabangcura