KAPANGAN, Benguet – In support of the promotion of the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) which is the key feature of RA 11511, an act amending the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010 or RA 10068, the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Standards (BAFS) in coordination with the DA-Cordillera Administrative Region (DA-CAR) conducted an inspection of the Kapangan Organic Practitioners Association (KOPA) core group in Kapangan, Benguet on June 18-20, 2024.
The activity aimed to verify compliance of the five-core group with the Philippine National Standard relevant to organic agriculture and applicable technical regulations, such as 337:2022 (Organic Crop Production, Post-Harvest, and Processing – Code of Practice), 07:2016 (Organic Agriculture), and Department Circular No. 09 Series of 2020 (National List of Permitted Substances for Organic Agriculture).
During the inspection, five organic farmers were thoroughly assessed across various criteria including record-keeping on farm daily activity, harvest and sales; inventory of seeds, fertilizers and compost inputs, tools, equipment and machineries. While doing farm walks, each applicant was also interviewed regarding their organic practices, use of organic inputs, harvesting and post-harvest handling, land and water management, pest and disease management, among others.
The five applicants with scopes on crops were Johny Ayam of Bucobocan Farm and Dulnuan Apote of Ogwa Farm (both from Sagubo), Editha Bawingan of Jhandee’s Farm (Pudong), and Aygin Tam-awen of Ayson Farm (Taba-ao). Meanwhile, Ursula Sacley of 4L Integrated Organic Farm (Pudong) was involved in both crops and livestock. These farmers also constitute the Peer Review Committee of the core group.
KOPA President Johny Ayam is hoping to receive their Participatory Organic Certificates (POCs) after submitting the identified non-conformances found during the inspection, along with the necessary evidence to BAFS. “Kayat mi a maidaras koma mai-submit amin a kurang mi tapno isaruno mi a dagus ti ag apply para iti accreditation,” he added.
This inspection is a prerequisite to the accreditation process through an audit of a core PGS group to function as an Organic Certifying Body by implementing the processes of PGS certification and inspections in adherence to the PGS Participatory Organic Certification Scheme.
KOPA is expected to become the 6th certified core PGS group in Benguet and 8th in the Cordillera region.
The Inspection Team was led by DA-BAFS with members from the DA-CAR-Regulatory Division. Facilitators from the Regional Organic Agriculture Program, ATI-CAR, OPAG Benguet, and OMAG Kapangan were also present during the activity. By Jay R. Sagario, Magdalena B. Capis and Angelica R. Dognayon
