Access Agriculture participated in the 6th Organic Asia Congress, which was held in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte, Philippines, 6-9 June 2023, under the theme ‘Building World Peace through Organic Agriculture: Food Security Vital to Peace Building.’
The Organic Asia Congress (OAC) is one of the biggest organic events in the world, where representatives of local governments and the organic sector in different countries in Asia as well as like-minded organisations from around the world gather to discuss major trends in organic agriculture and find ways to move the sector forward.
The 6th Organic Asia Congress was hosted jointly by IFOAM Asia, the Municipality of Kauswagan and the League of Organic Agriculture Municipalities, Cities, and Provinces of the Philippines (LOAMCP Philippines), with many supporting organisations.
Access Agriculture's booth attracted many foreign and local visitors that included farmers, extension workers, government officials, the general public, especially young people, and representatives from universities, civil society organisations and private companies, among others.
The highlight of the exhibit was the series of new farmer training videos of Access Agriculture in Tagalog and Bisaya languages – two of the major languages spoken in the Philippines – that were projected through a smart projector. Some farmers were so fascinated by the content that they watched the entire series of videos available in these languages at the booth.
The visitors were very happy to learn that more videos on the Access Agriculture platform would be available in Tagalog, Bisaya, and also in Hiligaynon, another important language spoken in the country. They praised Access Agriculture’s mission to provide quality farmer-to-farmer training videos in local languages.
Access Agriculture’s second video platform, EcoAgtube, which allows all those who are interested in sustainable agriculture and green living to showcase their experience and local innovations through their own video clips in any language, also aroused a lot of interest among the visitors.
Representatives from provincial and local agricultural units as well as non-governmental organisations working closely with farmers have expressed their interest in using Access Agriculture videos to train farmers to further promote organic agriculture in the country.
The Access Agriculture team present during the Organic Asia Congress was led by Josephine Rodgers, Executive Director, together with Co-founder, Phil Malone and Philippines Co-ordinator, Danessa Lopega.
The 6th Organic Asia Congress also featured other events like the Organic Youth Forum, the 9th Asian Local Governments for Organic Agriculture (ALGOA) and the 4th Global Alliance for Organic Districts (GAOD) Summits, and the Women for Organic Agriculture in Asia in the Philippines Conference, aiming to foster peace by promoting food security through organic agriculture.
