THE Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) continues to promote organic farming by enhancing the capacities of small farmers in various parts of the country.
Rosalina Bistoyong, DAR undersecretary for Support Services, said the push for organic farming helps address the twin problems encountered by many farmers with limited resources to buy expensive fertilizers. She said turning agricultural wastes into organic fertilizers is, in fact, gaining ground in some agrarian reform communities (ARCs), with the help of the DAR.
“We have many success stories. Some farmers are, in fact, generating income by using agricultural wastes as raw material for organic-fertilizer production,” she told the BusinessMirror.
In Tacloban City farmers belonging to four agrarian reform beneficiaries organizations (Arbos) have started producing and selling organic fertilizers, with the help of beneficial earthworms.
Director Sheila Enciso, DAR’s top official in Region 8 (Eastern Visayas), said that five months after starting a vermin-composting venture using the African night crawler, a species of earthworm that can produce vermicast faster than any earthworms, farmers were able to produce more than 1,000 kilograms of organic fertilizers. The Arbos were provided with 30 kilograms of the African night crawlers in July last year.
Vermicast is the manure excreted by earthworms and considered pure
organic fertilizers.
Enciso said the Nagkakaisang Magsasaka ng Caibiran (Namaca) of Caibiran, Biliran, have successfully produced 6,954 kg and Hacienda Maria Cooperative (Hamaco) in San Isidro, Leyte (5,000 kg).
Other top producers are Merida Agricultural Diversified Services Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Merida, Leyte (1,750 kilograms) and the Sapisa Irrigators Association Inc. in Quinapondan, Eastern Samar (1,650 kg).
Dante Escarmoso of RU Foundry, a vermiculture expert, said 10 kg of African night crawlers fed with 10 kg of substrates, which are waste materials and animal manures, will produce 8 kg to 10 kg of vermicasts a day.
So far, the Arbos in Tacloban City are already earning from the sales of the vermicast they produced. Namaca has sold P13,250 worth of vermicasts, while Hamaco received orders worth P17,500
The buyers include small players in the cutflower industry, commercial farm owners, small farmers, including members of the organizations.