The list of groups holding conferences and meetings in Iloilo City gained an addition as Local Governments implementing organic farming programs holds its 12th General Assembly at the Iloilo Grand Hotel from December 4 to 5, 2019
Members of the League of Organic Agriculture Municipalities, Cities, and Provinces of the Philippines (LOAMCP-PH) are in town together with local chief executives and focal persons on organic agriculture after Iloilo City was selected as the venue to share initiatives and innovations and discuss pressing issues affecting the sector in order to shape up areas for collaboration.
The theme of the LOAMCP-PH 12th General Assembly is “Bridging Self-Organized Societal Three-folding On-the-Ground Initiatives and R.A. 10068 Implementation in the Philippines: The Development Path to Organic 4.0”.
The event has a multi-sectoral participants from the private sector, development networks, academe and the government.
Expected to attend from the government includes the Dept. of Agriculture (DA), Dept. of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), Dept. of Agrarian Reform (DAR), National Organic Agriculture Board (NOAB), Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Dept. of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and Cooperative Development Authority (CDA).
Also attending are representatives from the LifeBank Foundation, Agro-Eco Philippines, Greenpeace Philippines, Green Releaf, Quantity Solutions, National Farmers Seed Network, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines – National Secretariat for Social Action (CBCP-NASSA), Organic Producers’ Trade Association (OPTA), and Central Philippine State University.
The event will take a deeper look at international trends and how these trends are linked and manifested at the domestic level. Among the issues that will be tackled in the discussions are the Rice Tariffication Law on-the-ground Impacts and Institutional Response, Organic Agriculture Implementation and Impacts, CSOs’ Contribution in Organic Agriculture Implementation Initiatives, .
A round-table discussion and dialogue among different stakeholders will also be facilitated.
The League has aligned program implementation with the targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 2030). LGU initiatives has won recognition for best practices like the following:
- The Municipality of Dumingag in Zamboanga del Sur won the 2012 One World Award of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) – Organics International in Germany;
- “From Arms to Farms” program of the Municipality of Kauswagan in Lanao del Norte won the 2016 International Peace and Development Initiatives of the United Cities and Local Governments in Bogota, Colombia.
According LOAMCP-PH, Kauswagan also clinched a honorable mention in the 2018 Future Policy Award in Agroecology of the World Future Council, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and IFOAM-Organics International.
As a result, Kauswagan’s 2010 poverty incidence (PI) of over 79% significantly dropped to around 9% in 2018 and served as the concrete municipal-wide impact reference to hit the target of significant PI reduction of the UN global goal under SDG #1, shared LOAMCP-PH.
“We in LOAMCP-PH are currently in full swing and we look forward to sharing best practices and imparting knowledge to more LGUs in the 12th general assembly so that we can push for more communities to discover the wonders of organic agriculture and how it can help us ensure that human life is sustained,” said Kauswagan Mayor Rommel Arnado who is also the current national president of LOAMCP-PH.
*Photos and logos are from http://loamc-ph.org