From crisis to opportunities AI CRISIS COULD TURN PAMPANGA INTO ORGANIC FARMING PROVINCE By Manny Piñol

Early this morning, I took another quick trip to Pampanga Province for my third visit to the area since the confirmed outbreak of the Avian Influenza in San Luis town.

Visiting an old friend, Bacolor Mayor Jomar Hizon, whose family owns.Pampanga’s Best, the biggest and.most modern chicken meat processing plant in Pampanga, I understood the wider implications of the problem.

Mayor Hizon told me that the province willsoon have a problem on what to.do with the tons.of chicken dung collected by poultry farm owners every day.

Pampanga’s poultry farms are the sources of chicken dung used to fertilize the vast vegetable farms in the Cordillera Region.

With the restrictions on the transport.of poultry products and by products, including wastes, this is now going to be a huge problem for the poultry farms.

If left uncollected, it could be a health issue in the province.

Passing by the vast area of erstwhile agricultural lands which have.been covered by lahar after the Mt. Pinatubo eruption many years ago.

An idea immediately entered my mind.

The chicken dung could be processed into fertilizer and the lahar covered area could.be transformed.into a vegetable.production area using the Green House technology like how they do in the desert areas of Israel.

Solar Powered Irrigation Systems could be installed the area estimated to be about 5,000 hectares to provide water to the Green Houses.

The Green Houses could produce high value vegetables which, using the Clark Intrrnational Airport nearby, could even be.exported.

Immediately, I contacted friends who have knowledge on how to process chicken dung to fertilizer and they assured.me that they will have a proposal in one week.

Once again, I am excited at the.prospect of turning another crisis into a.positive development.

Indeed, every crisis.offers a window.of opportunity.

#Changeishere!