Department of Agriculture (DA) Information Officers, Marketing Officers, and Regional Organic Agriculture focals were convened by the National Organic Agriculture Program (NOAP) on July 24-27,2023 in Davao City for an Advocacy Planning Workshop which aims to firm up various advocacy support activities for the Organic Agriculture Program.

NOAP Program Director Bernadette F. San Juan in her opening message during the program reiterated the role of organic agriculture in ensuring a healthy citizenry vis-a-vis protection of the environment.

“Agriculture is dependent on the environment.There is a need to preserve natural biodiversity because it is crucial in food production.”, she emphasized.

The Organic Agriculture Program is geared on achieving its mandate to promote, propagate and further develop and implement organic farming practices all over the country. Hence, engaging the support of the communications and marketing team of the DA to craft and plan for an effective advocacy campaigns is seen as an important strategy to increase and widen support for organic farming in the country as well as help organic farming practioners access several marketing platforms for their organic products.

As part of the workshop, the participants were grouped into four teams to come up with several proposals for the set activities to be undertaken under the OA program. These were on the conduct of Caravan and Regional Organic Agriculture Congress; PGS Summit; Organic Agriculture Month; Website and Social Media campaigns; Marketing Assistance and Product Promotion.

Crucial in the successful implementation of these planned activities is funding, thus, with a limited fund, the OA Program hopes to tap support from other banner programs.