Rice farmers’ concept and awareness of organic agriculture: Implications for sustainability of philippine organic agriculture program

Issue Date

2014

Abstract

The paper examined whether organic rice farmers are already equipped with the knowledge of practicing organic agriculture in the country especially with the expected full implementation of the Organic Agriculture Act in 2016 through a survey conducted in 2011. The study showed that rice farmers have only low to medium level of awareness on organic farming activities and markets for organic products. Mostly NGOs and private institutions were the major sources of knowledge and support services. The farmers’ low level of awareness and accessibility to support services provided by both the government and private sector and the latter’s inadequacy in providing those services resulted in poor farmer compliance to the PNSOA standards. These PNSOA standards cover conversion procedure, requirement on seeds, fertilization, pest and disease management, crop rotation and diversity, soil management practices, labelling, storage and transportation procedures, and processing. The government must therefore triple its efforts in disseminating the proper information on organic agriculture to the stakeholders in the industry to ensure the sustainability of the organic agriculture program in the country.

Source or Periodical Title

Journal of the International Society for Southeast Asian Agricultural Sciences

ISSN

0859-3132

Volume

20

Issue

2

Page

142-156

Document Type

Article

Physical Description

tables

Language

English

Subject

Accessibility, Compliance, PNSOA standards

Digital Copy

yes

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS