BACOLOD CITY- The Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc., a non-government organization promoting sustainable agricultural production here, said the concept and promotion of organic agriculture in Negros Occidental should not be limited to the ban of genetically-modified organisms (GMO) or products.

“We encourage the provincial government to expound its concept and promotion of organic agriculture by not limiting it to a GMO ban but more importantly, instituting systems and mechanism for food security development and sustainability,” the foundation’s executive committee said in a statement. The statement was given amid the controversial enforcement of the provincial ordinance imposing the GMO ban.

The foundation said support systems for organic agriculture development should also be put in place such as alternative organic fertilizers and feeds, subsidized trainings on organic agriculture, and technical and financial support for agrarian reform beneficiaries willing to engage in organic farming.

Incidentally, the foundation developed the Ashden Award-wining renewable technology called the hydraulic ram pump used to bring water uplands through hydroenergy.

There should also be certification of local organic producers, a market for organic products, and support for groups and institutions engaged in the development and promotion of appropriate and renewable technologies, it added.

The foundation stressed the need for food sovereignty as a nation’s right to determine its agricultural, labor, aquatic, food and land policies, which it considers the best road map to a genuine and lasting people’s development.

For food security to be sustainable, it must be based on nurturing multiple sources of food and not rely on the massive production of monocrops.

Negros Occidental, being a sugar monocrop economy, yields about 60% of the country’s sugar.

The foundation noted that the most food secure populations are those that harness biodiversity in their food production systems, noting that monocropping and a plantation economy have only brought devastation to community genetic resources and widespread disempowerment, poverty and disease to an increasing number of people.

Biodiversity has provided the necessary resource base for different communities to adapt to varying conditions in the environment, it added.

Nevertheless, the foundations said that along with its partners, they laud and support the efforts of the provincial government to promote and institutionalize organic agriculture because central to sustainable agriculture is organic farming.

It added that sustainable agriculture also means that food products are distributed and marketed sustainably, and are thus not export-oriented.

By marketing food locally, farmers save on fuel and labor costs, and focus on local markets also ensures that farming communities are able to earn a living.

At a consultation last week at the Capitol, civil society representatives presented a resolution calling for the enforcement of the Negros Occidental and Bacolod City ordinances banning GMOs in both the province and the city.

They added that while there are sectors seeking to amend, if not do away with Provincial Ordinance 007, civil society recognizes the dangers posed by GMOs on endemic and indigenous plant and animal species and on the health of the people.

The resolution also asked Gov. Isidro Zayco to immediately constitute an enforcement unit under the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, joined by appropriate local and national law enforcement agencies and civil society organizations.