DAVAO CITY—The Department of Agriculture (DA) in Region 11 will recognize the top organic agriculture performers this year during the Regional Organic Agriculture Congress (ROAC) on Wednesday here.
Rosalina Mediano, Field Operations Division chief, said the farmers are cited for their exemplary contributions in organic farming, including one outstanding province and four outstanding individuals.
She said Davao del Sur bagged this year’s outstanding province and will receive P500,000, while the individual awardees are Lao Integrated Farm Inc., from Eman, Bansalan, Davao del Sur, as the Outstanding Farmer-Group Category with P100,000; Outstanding Provincial Organic Agriculture (OA) Focal Person Marylou Jalalon of OPAG, Davao del Sur, with P25,000 cash prize; Outstanding Municipal OA Focal Person Juniorlito Huege from New Corella, Davao del Norte, with P20,000 cash prize; and Outstanding OA Agricultural Extension Worker Marilou N. Runas of the Provincial Agriculturist Office in Davao del Norte
with P15,000.
Among the awardees, Mediano said the province of Davao del Sur and Marylou Jalalon are the region’s representative to the National Organic Agriculture tilt for outstanding province and provincial organic agriculture focal person, respectively.
“The DA is honored to have these organic achievers for responding to our call to patronage organic farming. I hope their neighbor-farmers will follow their footsteps,” she said.
She also urged the organic agriculture stakeholders to support the DA’s thrust in providing food safety and security to the consumers.
“We are aware that the public is now getting conscious when it comes to food safety. In fact, people are choosing organically grown products compared to those grown synthetically,” she added.
She said the recently concluded agri congress was a good venue to the organic advocates to learn technology updates, as well as address issues concerning organic farming.
For its second year, Mediano added that ROAC featured a forum, product exhibit and presentation of resolutions and recognition of regional achievers.
The annual event serves as avenue for sharing of new ideas, experiences and good practices among organic agriculture practitioners, program implementers and adaptors.