by Kang, Min Su, AFA
October 14, Davao City, Phlippines. Farmer leaders and staff from AFA members in Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Korea exchanged experiences on organic farming in an informal sharing session last October 14, in the Mindanao office of PAKISAMA, a national farmers’ confederation in the Philippines.
Meeting the fifteen organic farmers from Pakisama-Mindanao, six of them women, were Ms Hoang Thi Mai Huong, marketing assistant of Vietnam Farmers’ Union , Mr. Mai Philarak, Vice Chairperson of Sor Kor Por from Thailand, Mr. Vitoon Panyakul of Green Net Thailand ( who served as Thai translator), Mr. Min Su Kang and Ms. Seo, Yeo Joung of Korea , Mr. Huang Sung Wei of Taiwan, who are currently on volunteer work with AFA and AsiaDHRRA, respectively. The meeting was one of the activities of AFA and PAKISAMA to commemorate World Food Day.
Each participant shared his/her involvement in organic farming activities. In the course of the meeting, participants deepened their understanding of each country’s organic farming situation. Agriculture is the only industry in the world that gives and makes life.—the seeds a farmer plants grows into a living tree. In the midst of diffiiculties in motivating other farmers to adopt organic farming systems , the intensive labor requirement of such practices, and the lack of government support, the participants all agreed that ecological-friendly agriculture is the way to attain food security, eliminate hunger, increase incomes, and protect and preserve their natural resources and health. The participants also said that sustainable agriculture should be controlled and managed by small men and women farmers.
(Photo by Kang, Min Su, AFA)
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