Playing Organic Advocate
Close to a hundred village folk in uniformed shirts another over a hundred SLSU staff and students gathered in Southern Leyte State University's (SLSU) Multi-purpose Covered Court on the morning of October 29, 2014 for the School-in-the-Air on Organic Farming graduation, a multiparty extension program of the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), Southern Leyte State University (SLSU) and Radyo Ng Bayan DYSL. School-on-the-Air (SOA) is an early morning radio program which gives lectures on composting, crop rotation, green manuring, soil restoration technologies, and how to make 'indigenous' foliar fertilizers.
The program started on August 27, 2014 and aired twice a week at DYSL 104.7 FM from 5:30 to 6:00 in the morning. It started airing daily from September 29 until the program's graduation on October 29. Enrollees in the program cover SLSU staff, students and community residents of Sogod barangays, Libagon, Bontoc and some from Tomas Oppus bringing the total number of enrolled students close to six hundred.
“SOA is a better strategy to help build up those foundations, thus providing the farmers with knowledge for organic agriculture movements and this certainly can encourage governments to take an interest in the organic,” said Veronica Reoma, SLSU's Extension Unit Head who hosts the program with DYSL newsman Ramon Fernandez.
Exams are given on air and students pass their answers through friends or neighbors who hand their exam answers to the DYSL office or to the Research, Development and Extension (RDE) office of Reoma. One student also sent Reoma a bottle of the indigenous microorganism fertilizer that was lectured about on air. “Receiving an actual product brings that fulfillment. It gives meaning to extension when you see one or two lives improved because of such learning,” said Reoma.
The SOA is funded by the Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Training Institute – Regional Training Center (ATI-RTC) based in Visayas State University, Baybay City. The SOA is part of the government’s efforts to spearhead the promotion of Organic Agriculture as stipulated in RA10068 and Executive Order Number 481.
Guests at the graduation were ATI-RTC Officer-In-Charge Vilma Patindol and sociologist Franco Villaruel who was the guest speaker at the graduation.
"The global food system we have today is dominated by a handful of giant transnational corporations. Consequently, huge profits from agricultural production have accrued not to farmers but to the non-farm sector. Farmers and the rural poor should be at the forefront of this war. They need to reclaim their role as producers of healthy and ecologically sustainable food," said Villaruel.
For DYSL’s Fernandez, getting surrounding communities to adopt organic gardening is a battle he continues to fight everyday. “We’ve done the university school-on-the-air – not a one-time show but a series of episodes. I have no doubt that this can increase the supply of food and help lower down prices if many people do this. I have visited officials in Barangay Rizal for this. A few have expressed support, but much is still lacking in the supply of seeds and guidance in planting and growing organic vegetables. I see now that our on-air lectures are not enough. There should be hands-on training to show the proof of what is learned on air and to sustain the practice of organic farming. That is my cause.”
Students of the program from the neighboring barangays and municipalities, at the School-on-the-Air Culmination program.
Outstanding students are given medals and prizes. The honor students come from Tampoong, Sogod; Otikon, Libagon, and Tomas Oppus. (Farthest left): Veronica Reoma. (Middle): Vice President for RDE Prose Ivy Yepes (in black), speaker Franco Villaruel and ATI-RTC OIC Director Vilma Patindol.