ORGANIC farming advocates are eyeing the conversion of at least 400,000 hectares of agricultural land devoted to rice production into organic farm sites by 2016.

Roland Cabigas, managing director of the La Liga Policy Institute (La Liga) and a convener of Go Organic! Philippines, said the figure represents 10 percent of the country’s total 4 million hectares of land devoted to rice production alone.

The target, he said, was proposed by La Liga during the first of a series of consultation with various stakeholders in the Ilocos region (region 1) organized by the Department of Agriculture (DA)—Regional Field Unit 1 at the DBM Regional Center in San Fernando, La Union last week.

The meeting was held to solicit inputs that will form part of a comprehensive plan and strategy to boost organic-food production in the Philippines.

Around 200 farmers, local officials, representatives from church-based organizations, students and members of agriculture state colleges and universities based in La Union, Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte took part in the meeting.

During the meeting, Cabigas lauded the DA for ensuring a broad citizen participation in the crafting of the comprehensive plan to be called “Philippine Organic Roadmap.” The plan will give the government direction since a law mandating the government to promote organic agriculture and a budget allocation that will support it are already in place.

La Liga, a development policy research and advocacy nongovernmental organization, took part in the crafting of the implementing rules and regulation of Republic Act 10068, otherwise known as the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010.

 Cabigas said there is a need for a systematic and more programmatic approach to come up with a well-informed road map so the national budget allocated for organic agriculture can be utilized properly in line with the thrust of achieving food security and self-sufficiency.

 He said various stakeholders should also work for the permanent application of first-, second- and third-party organic certification processes, which will offer farmers a better and less costly option other than the prevailing preference for the third-party certification.

He said that a multi-certification application is commonly practiced in other countries such as India.

He highlighted the need for massive private and public investments for key infrastructure and support facilities that would hasten full production of organically-grown crops and livestocks as well the full production of organic fertilizers farmers can use in lieu of chemical or petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides.

Cabigas said there is a need to forge partnerships at the local level among organic farming practitioners, academe, private sector and local government to institutionalize organic agriculture as a priority centerpiece program requiring investment from public and private resources.