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Dumaguete City, PhilippinesSaturday, July 14, 2012
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Negrense farmers
told: Go organic

The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist is urging farmers in Negros Oriental to go organic to increase the supply of chemical-free vegetables in the province, a government press release said.

Provincial agriculturist Gregorio Paltinca said yesterday that one cause for malnutrition is the consumption of chemically-grown crops such as rice, corn, and vegetables. He noted that incidence of malnourished children in the province persists despite a surplus of vegetables.

Negros Oriental has long been sufficient in vegetable production but not all farmers have opted to go organic.

The province's malnutrition rate is pegged at 8.2 percent, Edgardo Barredo, action officer of the Provincial Nutrition Council, said, the press release also said.

Negros Oriental has been pushing to go fully organic since the 1990s after it signed a memorandum of agreement with the neighboring province of Negros Occidental to make the Island the “Organic Food Bowl of Asia”.

Meanwhile, Barredo said Region 7 residents only consume 102 grams of vegetables per day.

Health experts in Dumaguete City find this alarming, in view of the increasing number of deaths caused by lifestyle diseases or ailments that could have been avoided by the daily intake of vegetables and fruits.

In a forum marking the province's celebration of Nutrition Month Wednesday, Barredo said that cardiovascular diseases ranked as the sixth leading cause of diseases in Negros Oriental for the past five years.

Heart-related ailments are also among the top leading causes of mortality in the province for the same period, followed by cancer, renal disease, and chronic pulmonary diseases, a government press release said.

Barredo said this was based on the data submitted to his office by the 25 towns and cities of the province.

Negros Oriental's vegetable sufficiency level has been growing over the years, with 45 percent sufficiency in 2002 and 75 percent in the past few years, Paltinca said.

He said the province has been implementing several programs geared towards ensuring vegetable sufficiency like the establishment of the award-winning Barangay Agricultural Development Centers and the Gulayan at Palaisdaan Alay sa Kabataan.

Both programs are Galing Pook awardees, GPAK in 2005 and BADC in 2004, Paltinca said.

“It's an irony because we are living in a country with abundant supply of vegetables and yet we are not consuming enough of these,” Prof. Michelle Naranjo of the Silliman University Nutrition and Dietetics said in the same forum.

She added that in Dumaguete City alone, there are 1,000 children recorded to be malnourished. “This is preventable because malnutrition is caused by micronutrient deficiency, which can be found in plants.”

She noted that many pregnant and lactating mothers are also anemic because they are not eating enough vegetables.

The recommended fruit and vegetable intake is three servings of vegetables and two servings of fruits every day, Naranjo said.

“That means one half-cup of green, leafy vegetables and 3/4 cup of non-leafy greens such as squash, bitter melon and sayote,” she added in the press release.*

 

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