I rarely post about the Phillipines,only because I see so much on it that it would make you go blind trying to keep up with it.

However,this article caught my eye and made me think that COIN needs to be talking to the Phillipines about these MINI-fert plants.

Reasons are ,,,,
We have good relations with PI

2 >>> Getting an envoy together to go there would be simple(I was there myself in the USN in 1977-8).They have since closed the base there I believe;I'm telling you from personal experience they would be easy to communicate with and there is Major oportunity there for COIN.Shipping costs to other countrys of our Fertilizer products might make them less price-competitive, but the Mini-Ferts could be Astronimical in sales.

ARTICLE >>>

ZAMBOANGA CITY —

"Organic farming is gaining ground among this city’s upland farmers. This came about after a holistic intervention done by an academe-based organization that considers synthetic fertilizers and chemical-packed pesticides as things of the past.

The shift to organic farming from the traditional farming practices was brought about when farming communities were empowered through a development plan that includes poverty reduction and sustainable non-threatening environment farming techniques and health, said Renanto Armando D. Yumol, chairman of Western Mindanao State University’s Reach Out to Others Foundation, Inc (ROOF).

"We are trying to build a model farm area here for organic farming that intertwine the concerns for environment, bad farming practices, and alleviating farmers’ economic status," he told BusinessWorld during a visit to ROOF’s "Bunguiao Eco-Farm Park," outside the city proper late last week.

The project started in 2001 when the university came up with a research study on mapping and identifying root causes of poverty. The university was able to identify the problems eventually drawing up possible solutions.

The project eventually received a financial grant from the Spanish government covering a four-year program that will pave the way for empowering farming communities here.

Bunguaio, roughly 35 km away from downtown, is one of the city’s major producers of vegetables and fruits. Despite that, farmers here struggle to make ends meet.

Although, Bunguiao’s produce floods public markets here, delivering the goods is a daily challenge with the poor roads.

For decades, the income of local farmers came from cultivating coconut, banana, and marang, a tropical fruit that looks like a small jackfruit.

The introduction of organic farming to at least four sitios, or sub-villages here has dramatically improved the farmers’ lot, said Jesus Lavacanacruz, president of Sitio Udjung Farmer’s Association.

Mr. Lavacanacruz said there is still a huge land area for farming in Bunguiao. In his sitio, he said farmers previously adapted to a diversified farming system but had a difficult time applying synthetic fertilizer and chemicals due to the lack of capital.

"With organic farming, we can diversify to other crops since farm inputs are not that costly," he told BusinessWorld in the vernacular.

Mr. Yumol, who is an agriculture professor, said farmers in identified upland areas were trained to concoct their own organic fertilizers, maximizing materials that could be found in their own backyard.

"We introduced them to the fermentation of fruit wastes, and soil mixing with chicken manure," he said.

In addition, farmers were also taught how to make different kinds of organic pesticides. One example was the use of devil’s weed, where the stalks and leaves of the plant are boiled and later sprayed on plants."

http://www.bworldonline.com/BW070209/con...