Donated sludge to give organic farming a boost

FOUR tons of dewatered sludge from San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMBI) are expected to increase production of locally-grown organic farm produce.

Cebu City Agriculture head Joey Baclayon gave this observation of the daily sludge that the beer-making firm would donate daily to the Mandaue and Cebu City government  for the use of organic farmers.

Baclayon said the domestic demand for organic farm produce had grown at an average daily rate of 10 percent to 20 percent.

“We don’t have the exact figures for the local demand but it’s safe to say that we have not yet supplied even half of the demand from local establishments like hotels and restaurants that use the organic products for salads and other dishes,” said Baclayon, during last week’s signing of the memorandum of agreement between SMBI, IPI Foundation, and the Mandaue City and Cebu City governments.

The dewatered sludge or “bagaso” in Cebuano is a waste product of the beer that SMBI produce everyday which is rich in nitrogen, potassium and phosphoros.

“All these are essential for the plants. We have been getting sludge from San Miguel over the last six years and the signing is just to formalize the agreement. Over the last six years, we have been getting good results in produce from our farms,” said Baclayon.

farm lands

He said that in Cebu there are 28 barangays with farm lands tended by  15,000 farmers.

He said of this number, 1,800 were practicing  organic farming using the dewatered sludge from SMBI.

In Mandaue City, Subangdaku chairman Ernie Manatad also said that they had been getting a lot of good produce from their barangay farms.

“We have 35 farmers who volunteered for the organic farming program which the city government has also been pushing for our communities. We used the sludge in our vegetables,” said Manatad.

Farmers Manuel Labrador from Barangay Babag in Cebu City, Emelio Secretaria from Sudlon 2 and Rowena Zanoria from Adlaon also attended the MOA signing last Friday.

These farmers were among those who used the sludge in their farms for at least two years now and had since won themselves outstanding farmer awards because of their good produce.

According to Baclayon, some farmers were also combining the sludge with vermicast now and had also gotten good produce.

“With the formal signing, we hope to institutionalize the projects that we have done using the sludge and increase production of organic produce in Cebu,” said Baclayon.

In 2011, Secretary Angelito Sarmiento,  presidential adviser for agriculture modernization, painted a bright picture of the organic farming sector as he saw the increase of global demand for organic produce particularly in the domestic front and from neighboring countries like Japan and South Korea.

products

The major organic products from the Philippines are rice, fresh vegetables, muscovado sugar, crude coconut oil and chips, and fresh banana chips.

The major markets for organic produce include developed countries like members of the European Union,  United States, Canada, Japan, Denmark and Switzerland.

Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Prudencio Gesta lauded the partnership between SMBI and the local government units, saying it would help encourage more farmers to embrace organic farming which the CCCI had been advocating through their Cebu Going Organic program launched in 2011.