BACOLOD CITY—Negros Occidental province’s organic-agriculture industry has posted annual gross sales of P1 billion, according to Ramon Uy Jr., president of the Organik na Negros! Organic Producers and Retailers Association (Onopra).
Onopra is one of the lead organizers of the Ninth Organic Farmers Festival, which is being held at the provincial capitol grounds until Sunday.
Uy said there are now 10,000 hectares of organic farms in the province and farmers each have an annual income of P100,000.
Organic farming has helped improve the income and the lives of the farmers in the province, he added.
This year the festival has 216 exhibitors, representing a 30-percent increase from the 156 that participated last year.
Uy said the farmers participating in the organic-farming festival had six months to prepare for it.
Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. of Negros Occidental said the “organic movement has been growing by leaps and bounds,” and vowed that he would continue to support it, since he believed it would improve the lives of the poor. He challenged the agrarian-reform beneficiaries not to sell their lands, urging them to “plant high-value crops because the government will support you.”
“We’re an agricultural country. We have a rice soil and good weather,” the governor said.