International Commitment
Supporting smallholders with organic certification in the Philippines
The aim of this project is to actively improve the living conditions of smallholders.
The project is divided into three main activities. First, it aims to give smallholders, farmers’ cooperatives and farming communities access to an organic certification scheme. Crucially, the scheme should be affordable and trustworthy. To this end, a PGS (Participatory Guarantee System) pilot project will be set up and relevant training in this area provided to smallholders. Overall, the project aims to reach 500 to 1000 farmers while it is running and 10,000 afterwards, all of whom will be able to benefit from the certification scheme.
The second focal point of the project is to raise awareness of the quality of organic products among other actors. We want to inform hotel, restaurant and café managers about local organic production. We hope to build long-term relations with a minimum of three actors.
The third aim of the project is to raise consumer awareness of organic farming and organic products through a social media campaign.
Duration: 2021 - 2025 (4 years)
Contact
Projects
- International Commitment
- Rwanda: Job Partnership
- KVP Vietnam (Phase 2)
- Burundi: Agroforestry systems
- Georgia Organic
- Rwanda: "Partner Afrika"
- Italy & Germany: Being Organic in EU
- Vietnam: Trust EOP
- Serbia & Slovenia: Carbon balances
- Philippines: Supporting smallholders
- Uganda: Strengthening organic structures
- Innovation for smallholders
- Research & Networking
Partner
ECHOstore is a pioneer specialty shop that focuses on environmentally friendly and fair-trade products from the region. ECHOstore's vision is to promote sustainable lifestyles. Through the ECHOsi Foundation Inc, ECHOstore also supports producers and suppliers by training them in sustainable practices and ensuring that the goods they produce meet consumer demands. Now, due to COVID 19, only 2 of the shops are still in operation. Instead, ECHOstore is engaging more and more in e-commerce. Currently, four Naturland certified products are already available on the Philippine market through ECHOstore.
LOAMCP (League of Organic Agriculture in Municipalities, Cities and Provinces in the Philippines) comprises around 140 Philippine municipalities, cities and provinces that aim to free people from poverty, disease and hunger through organic agriculture. In total, there are an estimated five million citizens among the 140 mayors who are LOAMCP members. Around 10 % of them are farmers, so 500,000 farmers can potentially be certified according to Naturland PGS by being associated with LOAMCP. This also makes implementation much easier, as the implementation structures are already in place. The plan is to cooperate with two to three municipalities for an extended Naturland PGS as part of the project.
Funding
This MISEREOR-funded project is carried out in cooperation with ECOTOP, an institution with expertise in dynamic agroforestry systems.