Shell Training Farm in Bombon is now certified organic
Six months after filing its application, Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc.’s (PSFI) Shell Training Farm (STF) in Bombon, Camarines Sur gets its organic certification from the Organic Certification Centre of the Philippines (OCCP) on May 17, 2017.
OCCP is one of the two private membership-based, organic standard setting and organic certification bodies in the country. Following the signing of the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010 (R.A. 10068), STF Bombon has been added to the 86 third-party-certified organic operators in the country and is now one of the nine organic farms in the Bicol Region.
In accordance with the Philippine National Standard for Organic Agriculture, STF Bombon obtained organic certification for its livestock, poultry and poultry products, grain crops, vegetable crops, legumes, root crops, and perennial crops like pomelo and papaya.
Since the mid-90’s, the farm has been espousing the use of organic agriculture. It adopted the use of microorganisms for its fertilizer production and promoted it as part of the farm’s integrated farming bio-system technologies.
Third-party organic certification provides consumers confidence in the organic integrity of the products they buy. Certification is one way of ensuring that products claiming to be organic are actually produced according to organic farming principles. It is a way of protecting consumers, producers, and traders against the use of misleading or deceptive labels.
With PSFI’s farm produce carrying the organic certification seal, it can receive premium prices for its products. It can also easily access the fast-growing local markets and gain access to additional funding and technical assistance from the national agencies in promoting not only the economic benefits, but also the ecological and environmental benefits of going organic, which are all directed towards sustainable development.
By Maria Pamela Castro
Article published on PSFI news magazine October 2017 issue
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