LA TRINIDAD, Benguet, Philippines—Stung by labels that Benguet’s vegetables are grown heavily on chemicals and commercial farm inputs, six of the province’s vegetable-producing towns have vowed to make Benguet the country’s organic farming capital.

The towns of Buguias, La Trinidad, Atok, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay have committed to spearhead the P4.23-million project called “Upscaling Organic Vegetable Production in Benguet” that aims to radically change the province’s agriculture landscape into compost-based farm gardens.

With a combined area of 26,161.34 hectares of agricultural land, the towns, collectively called BLASTT, produced 397,897.75 metric tons of vegetables in 2007.

Anchored on what is called as “green financing,” the project, which was launched here on Sept. 3, hopes to double a 100 sq.m. farm owner’s income from P4,665 to P9,018 a month.

“Green financing” is a special credit facility for organic vegetable producers to increase production efficiency at the farm level.

This type of financing, says Ma. Rosario Lopez, executive director of the Jaime V. Ongpin Foundation Inc., would enable farmers to adopt environment friendly agriculture practices that would yield chemical free vegetables, now a fad in a growing health conscious market.

Under the JVOFI’s microfinance program, farmers would be given soft loans without fear of loan default and loss of capital since their organic farm production would be strictly monitored.

Aside from increasing the farmers’ income by making them globally competitive, the project’s main thrust is to set up a certification and quality control process that would ensure that harvested vegetables from Benguet are organically raised, and hence, are safe and healthy to eat.

The Australian Aid for International Development (AusAid) has thrown its support to the project.

Through the Philippine Australian Community Assistance Project (Pacap), AusAid poured in P2.3 million or 57 percent of the total project fund. The remaining P1.9 million or 43 percent would be the counterpart fund of JVOFI, the six towns and the provincial government.

Lody Padilla, Pacap coordinator, says AusAid promptly gave the go signal to the project because it showed the potential of becoming a model in the country’s drive toward organic farming.

She says that Pacap had funded 320 different community-based projects in the country but the Benguet project bears importance because of its expected impact on agriculture and the government’s food security and poverty mitigation agenda.

There is no doubt that Benguet is the country’s vegetable bowl but with free trade dislocating the local market due to the entry of cheap imported vegetables, Padilla says going organic could make local farmers create their own market brand.

The La Trinidad Organic Practitioners (LaTop) members are conducting orientation and training for the project’s farmer clients.

Cesar Galvey, LaTop chair, says the organization is the first locally formed certification and quality standard group in the Cordillera. Its original 28 farmer members have now increased to 55.

LaTop has four market outlets for its organic products here and in Baguio City.

The JVOFI, with support from Benguet State University, Department of Agriculture and the Foundation for Sustainable Society Inc., has tapped LaTop for the project for having established its own “star system” of quality control.

The more stars that appear in the vegetables’ tags mean the vegetables are certified to be organic that they were cultivated through soil, water and homemade fertilizers or compost that do not have nitrates or traces of chemicals.

Lopez says the project aims to increase LaTop’s membership to 200 farmers after a year and increase the average organic farm production area per farmer from 100 sq.m. to 200 sq.m.

Market is not a problem for organic products, says Jeff Laruan, LaTop manager.

He says the project’s success after a year would push LaTop to apply for recognition from the Organic Certification Center of the Philippines (OCCP), the country’s nationally accredited organic certification agency.

LaTop members, Laruan says, sell their vegetables at P100 a kilo, whether the wholesale prices in the wet market or at the trading post here are lower or higher.

“But most often, vegetable farm gate prices sink to P10 to P40 a kilo, compared to our fixed price. Thus, our organic farmers are assured of a higher income despite price fluctuations in the vegetable trade,” he says.

Buguias Mayor Felicio Bayacsan welcomes the project, saying it will help erase the stigma that the province’s vegetables are laden with chemicals.

Frank Binay-an and Asamo Aban, agriculture officers of Tuba and Buguias towns, respectively, say the project would eliminate the “ready made farming culture” of the farmers by becoming health conscious themselves.

Lopez says the project will go full blast this month with more training to be given to farmers working in the BLASTT towns.