DAVAO CITY – One of the largest banana producers in Mindanao whose produce are exported worldwide has started to use organic farming in propagating bananas in their plantation farms after finding positive results especially in the return of income.

The Sumifro Philippines Corporation has begun converting nine of its 20 hectares for organic farming.

They are now using compost materials as fertilizers instead of chemicals through aerial spraying, which the city government has banned due to negative effects on human health.

Alan Apolinar, Sumfro’s general manager, said since the company started adopting organic farming, they were able to cut expenses on fertilizers and double their income compared when they were using chemical fertilizers.

“It also improves water retention in the soil during no rainfalls, so the banana trees can survive throughout the dry spell seasons,” he said.

Evangelist pastor Apollo Quiboloy, spiritual leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ the Name Above Every Name, said it was good news for him.

Quiboloy and his members who lived in areas near banana farms in barangays Calinan and Mandug led the campaign in 2005 to support the city’s ordinance against aerial spraying because of the negative effects on people’s health.

But the constitutionality of the ordinance was questioned by the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association that was later favored twice by the Court of Appeals in Cagayan de Oro City.