DAVAO CITY | AUGUST 8, 2022 – FPA Region XI and Croplife Regional Action Network (CRAN) X met with the City’s Agricultural Office (CAO) for possible collaboration on the proposed Empty Pesticide Container (EPC) retrieval project on August 3, 2022, at the City Agriculture’s Office Conference Hall. 

For the CAO to have a clearer picture of the proposed project, FPA and CRAN discussed the highlights from the previous meeting conducted last July 15, 2022. 

Some of the points discussed in the previous meeting include:

• challenges for the implementation of the EPC retrieval project;
• creating a team that includes the FPA, Croplife Philippines, Local Government Units, particularly the City/Municipal Agriculture’s Office and City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO); and
• tapping the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) for the legalities and other concerns on the implementation of the project.

The team also discussed their initial plans for the implementation of the EPC retrieval projects, to wit:

• contact Brgy. LGUs and CAO technicians since they will be in-charge in training the farmers in their respective areas;
• create a Technical Working Group (TWG) composed of the different government agencies, including the LGU and other chemical companies; 
• create a master list containing necessary information like name, address, chemicals used, and land area; and
• establishment of temporary storage (structure) for EPCs following the EMB standards.

The meeting was attended by the FPA team headed by Regional Officer (RO) Marrisa Napalit, Provincial Officer (PO) Rustom Gain Tanduyan, Ms. Catherine Sumagaysay from Syngenta, Mr. Lizter Anasco from CB Andrews, and Mr. Edgardo Haspe (OIC of the City Agriculture’s Office) and the rest of the CAO personnel. 

CAO will introduce the project during their Solid Waste Management Board (SWMB) meeting for their approval. The group, including the FPA and CRAN, will also be conducting a seminar-workshop for the agricultural technicians in September as part of plans to implement the EPC retrieval project. ###