ORGANIC small-scale farmers are urged to have their farms certified with the Participatory Guarantee System to have products labeled as organic, an official from the City Agriculturist Office said.
The PGS certification is intended to validate small-scale farmers as actual and active practitioners of organic agriculture.
“Once you have the certification, meaning to say you qualified, complied with the requirements of the National Organic Agriculture Standards,” Jeana Ablen, senior agriculturist at CAgrO, said during the Ispeak Media Forum on Thursday.
The PGS-certified logo is a guarantee that farmers adopt organic practices not only to crops but also to livestock.
Only about 200 hectares of agricultural land in the city are practicing organic standards, and seven farms are PGS-certified. These seven farms are located in Tamugan, Baguio District, Gumalang, Ula, Catalunan Grande, Tacunan, and Los Amigos for crop production and animal production.
Other organic farms are certified by a third party, as in Sibulan, which exports bananas to Japan; their certifying body is Japan Agricultural Standard, and Barangay Saloy for cacao beans is certified by a European body.
In Davao City, the Davao Organic Farmers and Advocates Association (DOFAA) has the sole authority to certify small-scale organic farms and their products.
Earlier this year, in February, the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Standards (BAFS) accredited them until 2030.
At minimal cost, small-scale farmers can have their farms certified by DOFAA rather than third-party independent verifiers.
Aside from the Philippine National Standards on Organic Agriculture, this certifying body also has internal certification through peer review.
Organic farmers are advised to be verified by the City Agriculture Office and their barangay, and must be a member of the PGS-Davao group.
CAgrO offers technical assistance training to interested farmers and seedlings from its fruit nursery. The office stressed the role of organic farmers in food safety and food security in the city’s celebration of Organic Agriculture Month, created through Presidential Proclamation no. 1030, issued in 2015.
