The 7th Negros Island Organic Farmers Festival kicked off in Bacolod City yesterday with declarations of commitment to fair trade, the National Year of the Rice, and the turnover of P4 million to the provincial government for Negros Occidental as one of the top 10 rice producers of the country.

The three-day festival being held at Gatuslao Street, behind the provincial Capitol building in Bacolod City, has 109 exhibitors selling organic products ranging from health supplements, cooked food, fertilizers, fruits, vegetables, silk, bags, milk, meats to plants, as well as farm equipment.

Marañon said the organic production in Negros Occidental is growing by about 30 percent, and noted that there are more participants in this year’s festival compared to 2011.

“The way to the future for our food is organic, it is safe, healthy and chemical-free,” he said.

“Today there are so many illnesses hitting the young because the food we eat are adulterated, it is important to go organic because health is wealth,” he said.

At the festival opening program Department of Agriculture Region VI Executive Director Larry Nacionales turned over P4 million from the DA to the governor as the province’s prize for being among the top ten rice producers in the country.

The province also won first place in the Agri Pinoy Rice Achiever Awards this year, he added.

The governor, as the DA’s appointed food security czar of Negros Occidental, yesterday led the launching of the National Year of the Rice 2013.

“I enjoin all chief executives of the 32 cities and municipalities to hand in hand promote a provincewide campaign to boost the morale of farmers and motivate them to adopt technologies to further improve farm productivity and encourage the general public to be responsible rice consumers,” the governor said.

Fairtrade Negros was also launched at the organic festival opening with the signing of the Negros Declaration of Fairtrade Principles that commits to poverty reduction, empowering small producers, solidarity for justice in trade, sustainability of ecology, partnership and dialog, transparency and accountability, and gender equity and respect for children’s rights.

Officials of the Negros Island Fair Trade Federation, composed of five federations of agrarian reform beneficiaries also took their oaths before Gov. Alfredo Maranon Jr.

They are the Negros Organic and Fairtrade Association, Organikong Mangunguma sa Naaminhang Negros, Organization of Negros Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Planters Association, Upgrading Performance for Sustainable Capacities Livelihood Enterprise, and Organic na Negros! Producers and Retailers Association that represent at least 4,000 poverty-stricken households in agrarian reform communities all over Negros Occidental, Edwin Lopez, Task Force Negros Fair Trade head, said.

The main objective of the fair trade federation is to link up small farmers with stable and socially oriented, domestic and international markets, he said.*CPG

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