This is a good analysis of what remains as problems with implementing organic agriculture in the Philippines. We in MAKAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines) should weight our support for the analysis and recommendation here that there should be "...clear program and funding for the transition to organic agriculture" if the implementation of the various laws supporting of organic agriculture has any chance of making a difference in the lives of our farmers and towards food security of the country in the way that it will be sustainable and will nurture agricultural biodiversity and the biodiversity of other ecosystems. Let us take a serious look at this as we pursue our GREEN AGENDA of a 100% shift to sustainable agriculture. JOIN to ACT: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makakalikasan.sustainable.agriculture JOIN MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html Original article: business.inquirer.net/322303/organic-agriculture-in-ph-no-funding-no-plans
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MAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines) welcome the amendment of our the 2010 Organic Agriculture Act to include the PGS (Participatory Guarantee System) that remedies the problem of the original law which was more focused on developing and facilitating organic agriculture production for export. With PGS, we can not re-direct our organic agriculture towards local, domestic use and development. For MAKAKALIKASAN, this is a step to the right direction of a shift to 100% organic agriculture for the entire country within the next 10-20 years. To read more about the Organic Agriculture agenda of MAKAKALIKASAN, please read this: http://naturepartyph.weebly.com/sustainable-agriculture.html
JOIN to ACT through our appropriate FB Action Group: www.facebook.com/groups/ph.sustainableagriculture To JOIN the MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html To become a Founding Member, please JOIN our ASSEMBLIES: www.facebook.com/groups/makakalikasan.assembly Original article Organically grown vegetables mean many things: naturally grown, synthetic chemical-free, safe, sustainable. Unfortunately, it can also mean other things: expensive, inaccessible to small farmers and consumers on a tight budget. The Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) is hoping to change this. Organic vs. natural farming. There’s a slight confusion between organic and natural farming, with the terms sometimes being used interchangeably. While both organic and natural farming use the same processes, the big difference lies in paperwork. Namely, ‘organic’ refers to a farm or product that uses natural farming methods and has been certified as organic by a third party, while ‘naturally grown’ refers to a farm or product that uses natural farming methods, but does not have organic certification. Read more Best Practices: How Regenerative & Organic Agriculture and Land Use Can Reverse Global Warming3/14/2021 MAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines) welcomes this comprehensive article by the Regeneration International that details how regenerative and organic agriculture and proper land use can be a solution to global warming rather than agriculture remaining a major cause of climate change. In MAKAKALIKASAN's Green Manifesto and our option for a GREEN NORMAL, we have defined our view that such a green normal will take the form of three key elements: sustainability, planetary health & well-being and REGENERATION. So we are definitely a supporter of this view of the "new" agriculture. Read about our GREEN MANIFESTO as part of our party overview here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t7jRR-OOxngIdXfdaGevMzZZ2RbqQFZa/view?usp=sharing (slide 8-19) or read our GREEN AGENDA on Sustainable Agriculture: http://naturepartyph.weebly.com/sustainable-agriculture.html
JOIN to ACT through our relevant FB Action Groups: www.facebook.com/groups/ph.sustainable.agriculture www.facebook.com/groups/ph.climateactions To JOIN the MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html To become a Founding Member, please JOIN our ASSEMBLIES: www.facebook.com/groups/makakalikasan.assembly Original article The earth’s soils, along with trees and plants, are the largest sink or depository for carbon after the oceans. Regenerative organic agricultural practices sequester CO2 and store it in the soil and above ground as organic matter. Perennial polycultures, agroforestry, and reforestation can sustain and increase both above ground and below ground carbon. Scaling up a small percentage (5-10%) of best practice regenerative and organic systems will result in billions of tons (Gt) of CO2 per year being sequestered into the soil and into continuous, perennial above ground biomass. The identification, funding, and deployment of these best practices on 5-10% or more of the world’s total croplands (4 billion acres), rangelands (8 billion acres), and forestlands (10 billion acres) will be more than enough to draw down and cancel out all the current CO2 and greenhouse gases (43 Gt of CO2) that are currently being emitted, without putting any more CO2 into the atmosphere or the oceans. Read more MAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines) notes the main point of the study that shows "...(r)ecent varieties of rice, bred for environmental stresses like heat, showed better yields than both traditional rice varieties and modern varieties of rice that were not specifically bred to withstand warmer temperatures. But the study found that warming adversely affected crop yields even for those varieties best suited to the heat. Overall, the advantage of varieties bred to withstand increased heat was too small to be statistically significant."
This puts to doubt pronouncement of many big seed companies that their climate-resilient varieties are necessarily better that traditional varieties. We therefor cannot discount yet the value of traditional varieties in favor of this new technology touted as our solution to adopt agricultural production to the changing climate. More studies must be done quickly. Given the urgency of the impacts of climate change to our food security, MAKAKALIKASAN reiterates its position on ORGANIC AGRICULTURE within the framework of sustainable agriculture that among others promote traditional varieties that have proven capacity to adopt to rising climates. Notwithstanding, we also support more R&D (research and development) to provide key answers to this dilemma fast. Read here the GREEN AGENDA of the MAKAKALIKASAN on SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE and RESEARCH and DEVELOPMENT: http://naturepartyph.weebly.com/sustainable-agriculture.html http:// naturepartyph.weebly.com/education-research--development-rd--artistic-expressions-for-sustainability.html JOIN to ACT through our FB Action Group: www.facebook.com/groups/ph.sustainable.agriculture To JOIN the MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html To become a Founding Member, please JOIN our ASSEMBLIES: www.facebook.com/groups/makakalikasan.assembly Original article A study of the relationship between temperature and yields of various rice varieties, based on 50 years of weather and rice-yield data from farms in the Philippines, suggests that warming temperatures negatively affect rice yields. Recent varieties of rice, bred for environmental stresses like heat, showed better yields than both traditional rice varieties and modern varieties of rice that were not specifically bred to withstand warmer temperatures. But the study found that warming adversely affected crop yields even for those varieties best suited to the heat. Overall, the advantage of varieties bred to withstand increased heat was too small to be statistically significant. One of the top 10 countries globally in rice production, the Philippines is also a top 10 rice importer, as domestic supply cannot meet demand. Read more |
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