GoOrganic! Philippines

Organic FIELDS Support Program (OFSP): Phase I

The Organic FIELDS Support Program (OFSP) is a partnership between the Department of Agriculture (DA) and non-government organizations comprising the Go Organic! Philippines.  The program complements the FIELDS program -- DA’s main strategy for achieving rice sufficiency.

Phase I of the OFSP shall serve as a pilot project that will introduce organic farming systems and technologies to at least six hundred (600) farmers in six (6) rice producing cities/municipalities across the country.  These farmers shall be given season-long trainings that will coincide with the dry cropping season. Comprising sixteen (16) sessions, these training activities, utilizing popular education and adult learning approaches, shall enable the farmer initiators to be effective practitioners of sustainable agriculture practices.

Complementing the training activities, a nationwide quad media information, education and communications (IEC) campaign shall also be undertaken.  The Quad Media IEC (Q-IEC) campaign shall serve as learning tools for farmers, including those who will not be reached by the project, through printed materials, television and radio programs, and the internet for better understanding and appreciation of organic farming. Moreover, the Q-IEC shall seek to create a national awareness and broad support among its potential viewers, listeners and readers to the Department’s program on organic farming.

Monitoring and evaluation shall be a built-in endeavor in all project activities. Project monitoring and evaluation (PME) tools shall be developed to aid local project staff not only in documentation but also in monitoring production responses due to the shift to organic farming systems.

Moreover, two of the project sites shall be subjected to close research and development (R&D) intervention by a team of agricultural experts. The R&D team shall look into: a) agronomic, economic and yield responses to three (3) rice production systems (e.g., organic/SRI, balanced fertilization and farmer’s practice); and b) quantification of the contribution to rice productivity of the component  technologies of the system of rice intensification (SRI).

As a core strategy, implementation of local initiatives shall be undertaken through the establishment of partnership mechanisms among key local stakeholders in each of the target areas, principally among the local government, non-government organizations, farmers’ organizations and the DA. Specifically, the DA, through its local counterpart, shall actively participate in the project by prioritizing and ensuring delivery of the production components under FIELDS (but not covered by OFSP Phase 1) such as seeds, loans and credit, post-harvest facilities and irrigation.

In sum, the objectives of the OFSP: Phase I are as follows: (1) Generate awareness and broad support on organic farming; (2) Train and enhance the capabilities of farmers on sustainable agriculture production systems; (3) Document and analyze production-related responses to organic farming methodologies; and, (4) Develop partnership mechanisms among agriculture stakeholders at the local level for DA programs.