BALANGA City – This component city on Friday opened the first organic trading post in Bataan to encourage residents to patronize organically-raised fruits and vegetables and for more farmers to go into organic farming.
City Vice Mayor Noel Valdecanas said they launched “Go Organic Farming” out of love for the environment. “Ang paggamit ng kemikal ay hindi lamang masama sa katawan ng tao kundi maging sa kalikasan,” he said.
Nerrissa Mateo, city agriculturist, said Region 3 in San Fernando, Pampanga of the Department of Agriculture, released P1.5 million for the project. The amount of P1 million was used in building construction; P300,000 for refrigerators, chillers, vacuum pack sealer and other equipment inside the building and P200,000 as seed capital of Kaanib.
Kaanib is a group of farmers from Barangay Cataning here who are into organic farming. To ensure continuous supply of organic vegetables to the trading post, City Mayor Jose Enrique Garcia III has required all 25 barangays to apply organic farming methods in all the village-operated gardens.
The city has also established two areas where city hall workers themselves cultivate the vegetable farms. Mateo said the one-hectare farm was funded for P300,000. With Kaanib cultivating three hectares, Balanga has currently four hectares of land principally devoted to organic farming, she said.
She said that the mayor wanted ordered no chemical fertilizers and pesticides be used in these four hectare-farm and barangay vegetable gardens “We are hoping that more farmers will go into organic farming,” Mateo said.
On sale at the trading post were papaya, calamansi, saging saba, string beans, eggplant, tomatoes, okra, kangkong, seedlings and organic pork meat. Soon, organic rice and other vegetables and fruits will be sold.
