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PGS changes law on organic agriculture in the Philippines

13.07.2020

This is a repost of an article written by Maria Rowena A. Buena, published on Organic Without Boundaries, a blog by IFOAM – Organics International

The Senate in the Philippines has approved a bill recognizing Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS), amending the current legal framework for organic agriculture in the country.

Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are locally focused quality assurance systems. They certify producers based on active participation of stakeholders and are built on a foundation of trust, social networks and knowledge exchange.

The lower house will also pass their version of the amendment and it will then be ready for signing by the President. After this, the Implementing Rules and Regulations will be developed.

As an alternative and complementary tool to third-party certification, PGS plays a vital role in rural development and farmer empowerment through active engagement of farmers in the whole process of verification, decision making, and marketing.

With its recognition by law, organic farmers will be able to get training and certification for their produce, without incurring heavy costs. This is certainly going to have a positive impact on biodiversity and the livelihoods of organic farmers in the Philippines.

PGS started in the Philippines when Masipag launched the Masipag Farmers Guarantee System (MFGS). This happened shortly after the organizations’ participation in the Alternative Certification Workshop organized by IFOAM – Organics International, in Brazil in 2004. Since then, Masipag has been involved in the development of PGS, mostly for its members and partner organizations all over the country.

In 2010, the Republic Act 10068 or the Organic Agriculture Law was enacted. The law supports the growing organic agriculture movement in the country. However, Section 17 of the law only allows third party certification to be labelled as “organic”. For Masipag, this is a disservice to small scale organic farmers in the country who cannot afford to pay third party certification costs.

A farmer from Negros Occidental province says, "We have been organic farmers long before this law. With its enactment, we suddenly cannot call our products organic. Otherwise, we will be called outlaws if we do."

Seeing such an unfair situation for the farmers, Masipag started advocating for PGS recognition in 2011. They did so by conducting a conference with the stakeholders to discuss how to strengthen the mass base that would support the amendment of the law.

It was at this conference that the establishment of a network that would spearhead lobbying and PGS development efforts was agreed upon by the participants in unison, thus, PGS Pilipinas was born.

Since then, PGS trainings were conducted in various provinces, municipalities and partner organizations in the country. In 2013, a position paper from PGS Pilipinas was handed by the then IFOAM – Organics International President, Mr. Andre Leu to the National Organic Agriculture Board (NOAB), calling for their swift action to amend the law to recognize PGS.

As a response, the Department of Agriculture issued the Administrative Order 08 which deferred the implementation of Section 17 to December 2016. In the same year, the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Standards (BAFS) of the Department of Agriculture, called for the formation of the Technical Working Group (TWG) to draft the guidelines for PGS development which would serve as a basis for PGS accreditation or registration.

The draft document was presented in National Organic Agriculture Congresses to solicit comments and suggestions from the stakeholders. There was very strong support to recognize PGS, however, the government was tied to the provisions of the existing law and they could only support PGS to a limited capacity.

Despite the importance and urgency, it was only in 2018 that the Senate prioritized the amendment of the law with Senator Cynthia Villar as the main author. PGS Pilipinas and Masipag had been constantly consulted and they participated in Committee hearings and finally the refinement of the amendment.

Then, on June 1, 2020, the Senate finally approved the amendment of RA 10068 which had a particular focus on PGS. It took the Philippines 10 years to amend its law to recognize PGS.  With this recognition, policy makers should be reminded that, aside from recognizing PGS, they should also acknowledge the central role of smallscale farmers as well as indigenous people and their communities in the development of organic agriculture sector, as they continuously provide healthy food and vibrant economic activity. Smallholder farmers have long been marginalized in the country when they should instead have been a priority.

Thus, the recognition of PGS should be reinforced by the provision of appropriate support in terms of production, processing, prioritization of local distribution and marketing. Related polices such as genuine agrarian reform, protection of the environment and stoppage of land use conversion should be in place to fully realize an “increase farm productivity and farmer incomes, reduce pollution and destruction of the environment, prevent the depletion of natural resources, encourage the participation of indigenous organic farmers promoting their sustainable practices further protect the health of farmers, consumers, and the general public,” as stated in the Declaration of Policy.