Kauswagan town ready for ‘Organic Asia Congress 2023’

By Franck Dick Rosete Correspondent

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY

– The local government of Kauswagan in Lanao del Norte is all set for the upcoming “Organic Asia Congress (OAC) 2023,” this year’s biggest organic agriculture event in the world, the local chief executive confirmed in a media forum here on Tuesday, May 30.

Municipal Mayor Rommel Arnado said the completion of the Kauswagan International Organic Convention Center in Barangay Tacub, Kauswagan town, that will serve as the event’s venue is “99 percent done.”

“It’s just a matter of simulation now,” said Arnado, referring to the venue.

“Of course, in terms of electricity, the simulation for the guests who are coming, the security planning, and things like that, it’s all simulation. Everything is already in place, and we are ready,” stressed Arnado, who is also the national president of the League of Organic Agriculture Municipalities, Cities, and Provinces of the Philippines.

It can be recalled that Arnado said in an interview on Feb. 4 this year that their biggest challenge was the completion of the convention center.

The OAC brings forth the local governments and the organic sector together in different countries in Asia to discuss the major trends in organic agriculture and to discuss ways to move the sector forward, according to the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) Organics Asia.

It is one of the biggest organic events in the world, with hundreds of foreign experts, researchers, scientists, stakeholders, and like-minded organizations gathering in a week-long event starting on June 5.

Feng Li, secretary general of the Asia Organic Forum and the director of the China country office of IFOAM Organics Asia, said in the same media forum that Kauswagan town is an important place for the Asia organic movement, saying that he was surprised that organic agriculture can be so high in the “From Arms to Farms” program.

“This is a very miracle to us, and I think it’s very something new, very new. The organic community, even we have to learn,” Li said.

To ensure peace and order, as well as the protection of the guests, the security plan has been first addressed by the local gov- ernment in coordination with the Police Regional Office-10 and the Philippine Army 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion.

Kauswagan town has been directly chosen to host the event as the country’s leading organic municipality.

Among the events that will be featured are the 6th Organic Asia Congress, the Organic Youth Forum, the 9th Asian Local Government for Organic Agriculture Summit, the 4th Global Alliance of Organic Districts, and Women in Organic Agriculture in Asia.

According to IFOAM Organics Asia’s official website, the municipality of Kauswagan is the second LGU in the Philippines to host the Organic Asia Congress. The first LGU to host was Bislig City, Surigao del Sur, in 2018.

TOWN MAYOR, from p6..

This, Arnado said, was long before the Executive Order No. 70 was issued in 2018 by former President Rodrigo R. Duterte, which created a National Task Force and called for a whole-ofnation approach to “End Local Communist Armed Conflict” of NTF-ELCAC.

He said the rebel commanders and town officials supportive to his administration realized the solution to hunger is within reach, thus a Municipal Ordinance was passed requiring every household must have a backyard garden.

All government officials, he said, must develop a communal garden, and that 8,000 hectares or 80 percent of the municipal land area must be devoted to organic agriculture, thus Kauswagan became a 100-percent organic agriculture town. Some 2,000 hectares consist of residential areas and open public spaces.

“Kauswagan is already declared a hunger-free municipality,” Arnado said, claiming they have achieved food-security as they do not depend from outside for most, if not all, their food supply. “We’re rice eaters, and corn-eaters as well, promoting even root-crops as alternative sources of food.”

He said their farms are rainfed, planting rice and corn and other crops under coconut trees, because there are no national and communal irrigation projects in the town.

The town mayor said he is optimistic their push for organic agriculture to stabilize food supply can be sustained because their farmers are young, ranging from 35 to 40 years old, and there are about 200 who are currently enrolled in senior high school, focusing on agriculture and fisheries.

He said they have tie-ups with the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) of the Department of Agriculture (DA-ATI) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for continuing livelihood trainings and competency upgrading.

“Just lately, we have 50 NC II and NC III passers from TESDA,” Arnado said, who has recently been elected national president of the country’s League of Organic Agriculture, Municipalities, Cities and Provinces.

Starting Sunday, June 4 until Monday, June 10, next week, Kauswagan will be hosting the 6th Organic Asia Congress, with the theme: “Building World Peace Through Organic Agriculture.”

This event, which is under the auspices of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM), is expecting some 2,000 delegates from 35 countries. It is backed by the South Korean-based Asian Local Governments for Organic Agriculture, now headed by the Kauswagan mayor.

Among Arnado’s frequent visitor is Minister Abdullah G. Macapaar, currently a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority Parliament, and whose nom de guerre is “Commander Bravo,” but could not attend the biggest gathering of organic agriculture advocates this year.

“He is supposed to be part of the program and to speak on June 4 (Sunday),” the mayor said, but he’s leaving tomorrow (Wednesday, May 31) on hadj (pilgrimage to the Holy Land), who was required to undergo health protocols, including vaccination.

Commander Bravo, a brigadier general in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for Northeastern Mindanao Front, is a native of Delabayan village, Kauswagan.

“But two of the seven commanders are joining us, on his behalf, Commander Alem Ansari Murad of the 127th Base Command of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and Commander Dante Batinggolo of the Moro National Liberation Front, former mayor and current vice-mayor of Munai, Lanao del Norte. (MT)