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Pesticide use in Benguet decreases -- DA, BPI

BAGUIO CITY (Nov. 19) —The Department of Agriculture (DA) and Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) here announced that Benguet farmers are already adopting the use of organic fertilizers instead of chemicals.

DA Marketing Service Chief Patricio Ananayo, said that they went around the city market and trading posts and observed that leafy vegetables like wombok or cabbage have many holes in the leaves. He said this proves that more farmers are no longer using pesticides. He also mentioned that billboards advertising pesticides along Halsema Highway and near the vegetable gardens should be removed because these encourage the use of chemicals.

BPI representaive Adoracion Cenesa, also said that a BPI study last year showed that this year, from January to September, Benguet is 14% below the maximum limit of pesticide use.

Pesticides for better yield?

NORDIS interviewed two Benguet farmers who attest that they still use pesticides to ensure “better and greater produce”.

Celeste Pilapil 45, a Bakun farmer, and Jonie Torio 48, a Tublay farmer, said that farmers have to use chemicals to get good buying price. The price is lower if vegetables have traces of insects and pest bites, they explained.

Hostathion, Tamaron, Manzate/Curzate, Sumicidin, Decis and Vegetox, are the pesticides they commonly use, they said.

In an interview with Balao Vicente, Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (FPA) provincial coordinator, he said that the use of pesticides by Benguet farmers is still rampant but on case to case basis. “Farmers use more pesticides only if their vegetables are attacked with leaf miner, because this disease is hard to eradicate”, he said.

Vicente also added that guidance and information on the proper use of pesticides, first aid and proper disposal of pesticides are being disseminated to farmers through FPA seminars and trainings.

“But of course, many farmers still insist on what they know and what they want,” he said.

He also said that from 2000 to 2004, the use of pesticides decreased yearly by 10% because of the high cost of farm inputs. This led to the merging of some pesticide companies to avoid losses.

Practical solution

Fernando Mangili, secretary general of Alyansa dagiti Pesante iti Taeng Kordilyera (APIT-TAKO), commented on the DA pronouncement, saying that shifting to organic farming at this point is not applicable because the vegetable industry in Benguet is faced with increasing competition with other regions and imported products.

With the competition in the market, “I’m sure many farmers today are using more pesticides to come up with good harvest”, he added.

Mangili declared that “the government should first make a policy to implement a genuine program on agriculture to save the dying vegetable industry.” He also stressed that the government should fix the market system to maintain a good price at all times for the farmers’ produce and for them avoid bankruptcy.

Lastly, Mangili called on the government to recognize the rights of farmers to the land they till and to stop the importation of vegetables which is one of the reasons of the farmers’ financial losses today.# Johnny Fialen for NORDIS

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