QUEZON CITY — The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Friday (Nov. 10) spearheaded the National Launching of 9th Organic Agriculture Month Celebration.
In his speech, Usec Zamzamin L. Ampatuan, Usec for Special Concerns and for the BARMM, said that the “Farmers and fishermen are the bedrock of food security of the country.”
Ampatuan noted that DA Sec. Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. is very very supportive of the celebration of the organic agriculture month even if he is not around today.
The new DA secretary has just been in office for a week now.
Laurel is also expected to continue what President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. has done in the agriculture department.
“The city government of Quezon is in the forefront of urban agriculture, especially organic agriculture,” Ampatuan said.
Ampatuan also cited Mayor Rommel C. Arnado of Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte and President of Asian Local Governments for Organic Agriculture (ALGOA), for being in the forefront of organic agriculture.
Arnado is also a member of the Organic Agriculture Board.
A new board is now up for the signature of DA Sec. Laurel.
“Organic agriculture is the spirit of agriculture. The conscience of agriculture without which, we may have no food for today,” Ampatuan said.
“Whether we like it or not, for sometime, we may take synthetically-cloned food.
Organically-cultured food is closer to divinely-cuturred food such that people should eat food that are naturally produced and prescribed by God,” he said.
“One of the important components of organic agriculture is organic fertilizer, which is not very much commercially produced or available. Pest control is also a component of organic agriculture,” he added.
” I believe that when Jesus Christ comes , he will promote organic fertilizer, which only has PHP1 billion budget at the DA,” Ampatuan said. — By Perfecto T. Raymundo, Jr.