Nestled at the eastern valley walls of La Trinidad in the province of Benguet, Barangay Ambiong is home to a rapidly spreading community venture with the Ambiong La Trinidad Organic Practitioners Association (ALTOPA) as its outbreak origin. Barangay Ambiong finds a unique feature in its geography for being located at the outskirts of La Trinidad but bordering the City of Baguio. Thus, the barangay have to thread through the tricky balancing act of adopting to a fast paced urbanization, and preserving its treasured rural assets, one of which, is its agriculture sector.
Responding to this challenge, the idea of sustainable farming and healthy living, through organic agriculture, in the face of a highly infectious urbanization became ALTOPA’s top goal. Formally established on May 10, 2012, ALTOPA started with just a handful of organic farming enthusiasts, there were only 15 of them at that time. Through thick and thin the organization persisted and were able to grow their numbers with 32 strong and active members at present from barangay Ambiong.
ALTOPA was also able to secure third party organic agriculture certificates for most of its members. In terms of market and product outlets, the organization as a whole stayed true to its call to produce safe, quality, and healthy food for the community. Moreover, it tapped its fellow organic agriculture groups in the locality such as the La Trinidad Organic Practitioners (LaTOP) Multi-Purpose Cooperative and the La Organica as partners in marketing their products. Aside from highland vegetables such as pechay, lettuce, cherry tomato, beans, and others, ALTOPA members also produce lowland vegetables such eggplant, and ampalaya.
While ALTOPA has been successful in establishing and expanding its activities at present, it remains rooted on the lessons it harvested and kept through the years. Mr. Anthony Anniban, one of ALTOPA’s founding members and who is currently the Barangay Chairman of Ambiong, recalled how they started. He noted “we attended a lot of trainings before, my first training with the DA-ATI-RTC-CAR was way back in 1998, and from then on we kept attending any farming related training.” Aside from being a community leader, Mr. Anniban sustains his farm through the production of various vegetables including chia seeds, which is one of his specialized products. Moreover, he produces and sells compost-based organic fertilizers and other related organic agriculture inputs such as concoctions.
Ms. Agustina Paguiyen, ALTOPA’s current chairperson, also recalled how they started to institutionalize their organization’s organic farming undertaking. Just a year after their organization’s official government recognition, ALTOPA went through the formation of their Internal Control System (ICS) under the guidance of the DA-ATI-RTC-CAR. She shared their challenging experience in crafting their internal rules and standards based on the Philippine National Standard for Organic Agriculture. After a lot of lengthy discussions and series of field validations, ALTOPA was able to finally complete its ICS becoming one of the first organic agriculture farmers organization do so in CAR.
ALTOPA also recognized its partnership with government agencies from its beginning until the present. Ms. Paguiyen noted their partnership with the Ambiong Barangay Local Government Unit, the Municipal Agriculture Office of the Municipal Local Government Unit (MLGU) of La Trinidad, the Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office-CAR (DA-RFO-CAR), the DA-ATI-RTC-CAR, and other government and private organizations. These partnership, as she describes it, were bridges towards the sustainability of their organization.
The ALTOPA and the DA-ATI-RTC-CAR, undertook another partnership in 2018 when the Municipal Agriculture Office of the MLGU La Trinidad recommended ALTOPA as a recipient of the DA-ATI-RTC-CAR’s Community Urban Garden Project. The said Project aims to establish urban agriculture model farms (UAMF) which will serve as a showcase for urban dwellers to increase their capabilities and capacities on urban and home gardening both as an additional source of food and income. ALTOPA combined the organic agriculture technologies it adopted and developed in their community with the DA-ATI-RTC-CAR’s UAMF production support, and further capability building to sustain the said initiative.
The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic made its disastrous effect felt among many sectors including the farming industry. ALTOPA had its share in these struggles, but instead of succumbing, they made and found their way to sustain their organization and their farms. As the pandemic rages particularly during its onset in the locality, ALTOPA members, while acknowledging production and marketing challenges in the beginning, continued their farming activities with the aim of securing their home and community food sources. These became another avenue for another partnership where ALTOPA members underwent trainings on urban agriculture with the DA-ATI-RTC-CAR. Thus, aside from vegetable gardens, potted vegetables and herbs are a common sight these days in barangay Ambiong.
Recognizing their potential as a showcase for urban agriculture the DA-CAR family, composed of the DA-RFO-CAR, DA-ATI-RTC-CAR, DA-Bureau of Plant Industry-Baguio National Crop Research and Production Support Center, and the DA-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources-CAR, tapped ALTOPA as the first recipient of the “adopt-a-town or barangay” program in CAR. The “Adopt-a-Town” Project is one of the DA’s interventions under the Plant, Plant, Plant Program aimed at promoting food production in communities to enable them to produce their own food or at least portion of their food requirement especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amidst the high trust and regard attributed to their organization, ALTOPA still aims to further develop their organization towards the fulfillment of their goals towards sustainable community self-reliance. Like their crops which are fertilized and enriched by their organic composts and concoctions, ALTOPA remains on top of its vision for a verdant community. That is, a healthy community nourished from its self-sustaining farms and food secure households.
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