To quote the famous Hellen Keller, alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.

With the strong partnership between the Department of Agriculture – Caraga and its partners from the Local Government Units, the academe, and the private sector, organic agriculture has indeed grown and continues to make a niche in the region.

It was in the year 2010 when the Organic Agriculture Act in the country was created through the Republic Act 10068 and implemented the following year. Over the course of nine years of implementation in the region, the Organic Agriculture Program has achieved notable accomplishments.

To date, Caraga already has 29,509.31 hectares of organic agriculture areas and 3,919 organic farming practitioners. At present, Caraga also has two local 3^rd party certified farms/products namely the Caraga Agricultural Business  Corporation(CABCOR) in Butuan City, and the CRV Rice Mill in Alegria, Surigao del Norte, and one international certified which is the Celebes Corporation in Butuan City. In addition, a total of eight Organic Agriculture Trading Posts (OATP) have been put up, and 46 techno demos have been established so far.

And as a fitting conclusion of the month-long celebration of the Organic Agriculture Month, the DA – Caraga through the Organic Agriculture Program conducted a culmination program and awarded its partners from the Local Government Units, the academe, and private sectors in advancing the cause of organic agriculture.

In a message, DA-Caraga Regional Executive Director Abel James I. Monteagudo said that it is important to hasten the progress of organic agriculture in the region since organically grown products are now being preferred especially in the American market. “This is a good opportunity especially because our drive now in agriculture is to approach it as a business so that farmers may earn more,” he said.

On the other hand, DA-Regional Technical Director for Operations Rebecca R. Atega said that it is now the 6^th year since the month of November was first declared as Organic Agriculture Month back in 2015. She said the culmination activity aims to give due recognition and award those who excelled and supported the DA Organic Agriculture Program in fine-tuning farming practices to meet local production conditions and satisfy local and international demands.

On the part of the awardees, Dr. Anthony M. Penaso, the President of the Caraga State University thanked the DA management for the recognition which he said inspires them to do better and to expand wider the promotion of Organic Agriculture towards agriculture competitiveness and environmental integrity and sustainability.

The culmination activity was conducted last November 20 in Butuan City.  Awardees from Butuan City and Agusan del Norte were physically present while those from the other provinces participated through their virtual presence. (Vanessa P. Sanchez/DA13-RAFIS))