Bacolod City – More than a hundred farmers, scientists, and members of non-government organizations attended the 26th Regional Assembly of the Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG) in Kabankalan City recently.
The MASIPAG network has been practicing and promoting “peasant-science,” and is among the leading advocates of sustainable and organic agriculture in the country for almost four decades now, a press statement from MASIPAG-Visayas chairperson Rodolfo Cortez Jr., said.
Pressing issues discussed at the regional assembly are the impact of food and climate crises and the neoliberal agricultural policies affecting farmers’ rights to practice agroecology, it said.
Cortez, an organic agriculture practitioner and incoming National Organic Agriculture Board (NOAB) member representing small farmers and PGS groups, said that farmers can accomplish so much by practicing agroecology, if only the government could provide appropriate and adequate resources and policy support consistent with the organic agriculture law, and enhancing small farmers’ initiatives to achieve self-reliance and food security, including the right to own and control their land.
Jojo Paglumutan, MASIPAG BOT member and farmer rice breeder, reiterated the network’s longstanding call opposing GMOs, and also called on the Department of Agriculture to immediately stop the commercialization of golden rice fearing the occurrence of contamination as it spreads across the country.
Meanwhile, Georie Pitong, MASIPAG Visayas regional coordinator, called on everyone to support sustainable agriculture, specifically by upholding existing organic ordinances in Negros, adding that duty bearers of the province must ensure the welfare and uphold the civil rights of their constituents especially the rural farming communities as they are the first line of defense in climate crisis and food insecurity. (Chrysee Semillano via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)
