“Slowly we began to think of how we could support the organic farming considering that the vegetable industry is now facing a high level of competition and the quality of the soil is deteriorating due to high utilization of inorganic inputs.”

Jaime V. Ongpin Foundation, Inc. executive director Ma. Rosario Lopez said this during the launching of the “Upscaling organic vegetable production” project on June 19 held at Ben Palispis Hall, Benguet Provincial Capitol.

The project is a three-year tie up with the Foundation for a Sustainable Society, Inc. (FSSI) as the funding agency will be supported by the Philippines-Australia Community Assistance Program.

Provincial and municipal officials headed by Gov. Nestor Fongwan, partner agencies, and other stakeholders attended the launching. Aside from promoting environmentally sound vegetable farming, the project intends to improve the organizational and managerial capacity of the La Trinidad Organic Producers (LaTOP) Cooperative, the first of its kind in the Cordilleras.

Augusto Camba, FSSI associate director, said that their foundation supports projects adhering to their triple bottom line objectives on environmental development, economic deve-lopment, and social development. He added that the project will be an avenue for encouraging farmers to shift from conventional to organic farming.

The project shall include four components.

First is sub-sector research or value chain analysis that will cover the production process up to the marketing of the products to know the most significant intervention or impact. Second is green financing which will provide loans at an average of P25,000 to farmers who would like to set up their green houses.

Third is enhancement of the capacities of the farmer members and LaTOP. Last is the establishment of organic farm models not only for Baguio, La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba, and Tublay but also for farmers in other neighboring municipalities who want to convert to organic farming.