DAVAO CITY—The potential of organic farming to reduce carbon footprint and give Filipino consumers a healthy alternative to conventionally-grown rice—the Filipino’s staple food—cropped up in the final leg of the national consultations on enacting a national policy on organic agriculture.

Agriculture and advocacy groups supported the issue on carbon credits—a global fund that awards human activity that helps reduce emissions of ozone-depleting carbon—to magnify the advantages of legislating organic agriculture as a State policy.

“Organic agriculture has a huge potential in [reducing carbon footprints] that we can possibly seek for carbon credits,” a participant who formerly worked for a bio-fuel company said in the consultations at the Marco Polo Hotel here. “We can all help reduce retard climate-change.”

Rich nations have put up a global fund to compensate for activities anywhere that promote carbon sink activities and help reduce emissions of carbon dioxide that tears up the protective ozone layer in the atmosphere.

Scientists believe that some plants and trees, including the soil, have the natural capability to soak up carbon than they can emit and temporarily store them for an indefinite period of time, according to an Internet posting.

Rep. Proceso Alcala of Quezon Province, who is one of the sponsors of the still unnumbered House bill on organic agriculture, said his farming practice in rice production could be a major activity to seek carbon credits and help finance the needs of the industry.

Production of organically-grown rice remains below market demand owing to dependence on conventionally-grown rice that rely on inorganic—thus chemical-based—farm inputs, said Restie  Male, project manager of the Philippine Development Assistance Programme, Inc. (PDAP), in a another interview with the
BusinessMirror.

Also, the price of organically grown rice remains high at P60 per kilo when conventional, well-milled rice is selling at P35 to P38 a kilo, he said. Production cost though is lower at P20,000 per hectare compared with P30,000 per hectare of conventional rice.

Production, or the supply side, remains low. Mindanao produces the bulk for a market that encompasses Metro Manila. “We can not supply the needs of clients in [both] Metro Manila [and)] the local markets in Mindanao [where organic rice] is grown,” Male said.

Despite the low production, Male said the market for high-priced organic rice has widened to encompass even the consumer who is poor in economic terms. “That means more Filipinos are becoming more conscious of their health.”

“A legislation on organic agriculture would not necessarily mean cutting off all imports in inorganic farm inputs and stopping the production of conventionally-grown rice,” Alcala said.

“We want to give Filipinos more choices.”

A House and Senate proposal, entitled the “Organic Agriculture Act of 2009,” would declare as national policy of the State “to promote, propagate and support organic agriculture in the Philippines that will cumulatively condition and enrich the fertility of the soil, increase farm yields, reduce pollution and destruction of the environment.”

Aside from Alcala, 15 other representatives are sponsoring the House bill.

The committees on agriculture and food and on finance helped prepare the Senate counterpart bill, entitled “Providing for the development and promotion of organic agriculture in the Philippines and for other purposes.”

North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Piñol also suggested to Alcala’s panel that the government “compel shopping malls and supermarkets to display organic rice and other organically-grown agriculture products.”

Although PDAP’s Jerry Pacturan, moderator of the Davao City consultation, said Piñol’s proposal had been raised in previous consultations and had been “shot down,” another participant reminded the panel “that the BioFuels Act could be a classic example of how government has intruded into the realm of the private sector”.

“And it’s not just the BioFuels Act alone. There are other government policies where government has compelled the private sector to follow,” Piñol added.

Piñol suggested to also include in the proposed bill “aspects of marketing.” “Remember that organic rice is expensive, and it takes a lot of persuasion for the public to patronize our products,” he said.

Other participants said the proposed bill “should devote an entire article or provision to the marketing aspect of organic rice and other agricultural products.”

Alcala told the BusinessMirror that results of the consultation would be consolidated in a final proposal to be presented shortly after President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address in July. “We don’t have the time to do it before the session ends next week.”

He said the House proposal would then be consolidated with the Senate version after July.