Farmers are assured that shifting from conventional farming to organic farming will increase their production, Nacianceno Pacalioga Jr., Mayor of Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur, said yesterday.

Pacalioga was in Bacolod City as one of the speakers of the 6 th Negros Island Organic Farmers Festival.

He said his town started organic farming in 2007 with only about 20 farmers practicing it. After four years, Dumingag now has 500 farmers who practice organic farming, he added.

House approves
anti ‘hot meat' bill

The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill that seeks to eliminate the sale and distribution of hot meat or "botcha" in the country by providing stiffer penalties for violators, a press release from Congress said.

House Bill 5490, which amends Republic Act No. 9296, otherwise known as "The Meat Inspection Code of the Philippines ," also penalizes persons and entities who are engaged in the transport of hot meat.

The bill defines hot meat as the carcass or parts of carcass of food animals which were slaughtered from unregistered/unaccredited meat establishments and have not undergone the required inspection, the press release said.

IRRI calls for cuts in
use of pesticide

Rice farmers should cut the use of pesticides that kill the natural predators of the planthopper, one of the most destructive pests of the key crop, the International Rice Research Institute has said.

The Philippines-based IRRI helped launch the 1970s "Green Revolution" in agriculture, lifting millions of Asians out of poverty through heavy use of pesticides. But it said it was time for a more environmentally friendly approach.

The institute said it had found that pesticides and the lack of ecological "diversity" in rice farms had reduced the numbers of bugs and spiders that prey on planthoppers, a major rice pest in Asia .

back to top