The Journey of the African Night Crawler and Japanese Red Worm to Balete
The Organic Agriculture Act of the Philippines was signed into law by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo late in her term in April 6, 2010. This Republic Act seeks to develop and promote organic farming and discourage the use of synthetic and chemical-based agriculture among the Filipino farmers.
Two years after its passage, the DILG took the initiative of popularizing the law among local chief executives. It has scheduled this summer one-day regional awareness seminars for LCEs all throughout the country in anticipation of creating a spark for key officials to implement the provisions of the law in their respective turf. It hopes that by communicating it with the local leaders, the law's intent of upholding and expanding ecologically sound, socially acceptable, economically viable and technically feasible methods and approaches of food and fiber productions can be realized.
But long before the Department of Agriculture decided of ditching its multi-national partners, the African Night Crawler and Japanese Red Worm quietly found their way into the sleepy, rural and poor Baleten-on communities. Of course, those worms were not government-introduced. They are not like the Golden Kohol and those "Imeldas" whose introductions were hailed with lots of hosannas and media blitz and whom the farmers realized too late as pests in their farms. They shied the limelight. They rode discretely on the soiled pockets of Ng. Donie Cuarton (God bless his soul) and Nono Romulo, both volunteer community workers who came home from a BEC seminar on Vermiculture in Bacolod sometime in early 1993 or late 1992.
Soon enough a cooperative experimental endeavor was forged by the Apostoles of St. Rafael the Archangel Parish. With the help of Pido, a humble and gentle BEC worker from Negros, the group started off the first vermiculture project in Aklan under the guidance of Fr. Tito Gelito, the shepherd who also encouraged them to experiment on "dapog" approached to farming (This one deserves a separate discussion due to its merits and virtues). The project forms part of the pastoral program that traced back to Fr. Jo Parohinog when he was parish priest of Balete in the 70's. It aims of liberating the farmers from their addictive dependency on synthetic fertilizers while seeking to reinvent the "dagyaw" culture of the Baleten-on community vis-a-vis the provisions of additional source of income for each household. Enveloping these issues and concerns is the Theology of Life Fr. Tito has been positing about--an integrated life that appreciates the goods of the Earth as instruments and channels in a communal/familial journey with Jesus back home to the house of the Father.
At present, those worms find their ways in Barangay Feliciano, in Numancia and some other places in the Diocese while the Katilingban wanders still in the wilderness on Massah and Meribah, hopeful as ever of finding its way back to the path it once has trodden by.
_______
Vermiculture as practiced in other sites/places:
a. In India
b. Earth911.com
c. Canada
Two years after its passage, the DILG took the initiative of popularizing the law among local chief executives. It has scheduled this summer one-day regional awareness seminars for LCEs all throughout the country in anticipation of creating a spark for key officials to implement the provisions of the law in their respective turf. It hopes that by communicating it with the local leaders, the law's intent of upholding and expanding ecologically sound, socially acceptable, economically viable and technically feasible methods and approaches of food and fiber productions can be realized.
 |
| African Night Crawlers (Photo credit: Local Harvest Org.) |
But long before the Department of Agriculture decided of ditching its multi-national partners, the African Night Crawler and Japanese Red Worm quietly found their way into the sleepy, rural and poor Baleten-on communities. Of course, those worms were not government-introduced. They are not like the Golden Kohol and those "Imeldas" whose introductions were hailed with lots of hosannas and media blitz and whom the farmers realized too late as pests in their farms. They shied the limelight. They rode discretely on the soiled pockets of Ng. Donie Cuarton (God bless his soul) and Nono Romulo, both volunteer community workers who came home from a BEC seminar on Vermiculture in Bacolod sometime in early 1993 or late 1992.
Soon enough a cooperative experimental endeavor was forged by the Apostoles of St. Rafael the Archangel Parish. With the help of Pido, a humble and gentle BEC worker from Negros, the group started off the first vermiculture project in Aklan under the guidance of Fr. Tito Gelito, the shepherd who also encouraged them to experiment on "dapog" approached to farming (This one deserves a separate discussion due to its merits and virtues). The project forms part of the pastoral program that traced back to Fr. Jo Parohinog when he was parish priest of Balete in the 70's. It aims of liberating the farmers from their addictive dependency on synthetic fertilizers while seeking to reinvent the "dagyaw" culture of the Baleten-on community vis-a-vis the provisions of additional source of income for each household. Enveloping these issues and concerns is the Theology of Life Fr. Tito has been positing about--an integrated life that appreciates the goods of the Earth as instruments and channels in a communal/familial journey with Jesus back home to the house of the Father.
 |
| Japanese Red Worms (Photo credit: Earth 911) |
At present, those worms find their ways in Barangay Feliciano, in Numancia and some other places in the Diocese while the Katilingban wanders still in the wilderness on Massah and Meribah, hopeful as ever of finding its way back to the path it once has trodden by.
_______
Vermiculture as practiced in other sites/places:
a. In India
b. Earth911.com
c. Canada
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