A congregation of nuns from indigenous Igorot communities in the northern Philippines is showing how organic farming can be both lucrative and good for the environment.

The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (SIHM) in the Cordillera mountains are drawing on their experience of local conditions to make the most of farming opportunities here.

The nuns share their knowledge of organic farming with local villagers, and have organized more than 200 households in nearby communities who have previously relied on chemicals in farming.

“We work on the soil everyday, which is natural for us because we all come from upland farming communities,” said Sister Corazon Sanchez, who coordinates SIHM’s social development program.

Almost every available space at the nuns’ 1,000 square-meter property in Benguet province has been put to good use.

Slopes are covered with tiger grass used for brooms and as a soil binder, while root crops are planted underneath. Chickens scratch the ground for food under avocado, lychee, jackfruit and other trees. Fruit peelings and scrap vegetables are thrown into a compost pit beside the house where cow dung and earthworms produce a rich fertilizer.

Cabbages, lettuces and herbs, meanwhile, grow in Sister Sanchez’s 21-square-meter greenhouse, of which she is especially proud.

That hilltop greenhouse provides the religious community with food and also earns them a regular income as the vegetables are sold at an organic food store beside the cathedral in nearby Baguio City.

“In Tublay town, we have also established an organic garden, and have begun raising livestock and planted both fruit and other trees. We have also started experimenting on reviving vanishing upland rice varieties,” she told UCA News. “In teaching about alternatives, the best way is to actually show people how these are done,” Sister Sanchez said.

She said the Tublay farmers had produced 11,000 seedlings of Arabica coffee last year.

Almost half were sold and netted the community 28,000 pesos (US$611), which served as “seed capital” for the expenses of the villagers’ association.

Sister Sanchez has also been working on converting another 30-hectare SIHM property in a nearby Benguet town into an organic farm.

The late Belgian Bishop William Brasseur founded the congregation in 1952.

Source:  Mountain congregation leads way in organic farming

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