Buro Buro Springs Vermi Farm

n the 80’s and became a contract poultry grower in the 90’s, eventually evolving into the integrated organic farm that it is today. The farm processes all its agricultural waste through vermicomposting, fermentation and other processes; thereby creating a cycle where nature works its wonder around the environment. Since the turn of the century, Buro Buro Springs Vermi Farm has been acknowledged as a premier agri-tourism destination in the Philippines and a resource and training center for vermicomposting. It has supplied worms for most of the vermiculture projects existing in the country today. Vermiculture and Vermicomposting were previously unheard of in the Philippines when the farm had its humble beginnings. Essentially a work of nature in itself, it had been the object of study and research by Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III, then the Executive Director of the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research. The farm had initially looked into it as a solid waste management solution to its poultry waste as well as to preserve the local water table. It later took natural theory into practice at a commercial level with its vermiculture operations. In the farm’s history, Dr. Guerrero became instrumental in the guiding the farm’s early years and providing its first batch of worms in 1998. The African Night Crawler worm ( Eudrilus Euginae ) was instrumental in transforming the farm into what we see today. With the intial batch of worms given in 1998, the Henares couple started a commercial Vermiculture project that has since sold over 6 tons of worms to all parts of the country. As advocates of sustainable farming methods, they have travelled all over the Philippines training local government units, government personnel, government officials and private individuals in organic farming and solid waste management. Since 1996, the farm has also been a commercial poultry grower and currently has a population of 120,000 heads in a separate division. The farm processes all its poultry waste, converting this to compost fertilizer which is sold mostly to sugarcane farmers in the province. It is one of the most highly integrated farming operations existing in the Philippines today. It is also at the forefront of the organic agriculture movement in Negros Occidental and is a founding member of the Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Foundation. In 2009, the farm became the first certified organic farm in the Philippines by NICERT, the Negros Island Organic Certification System. Buro Buro Springs Vermi Farm has also ventured into fertilizer production and currently has a range of products being licensed and tested for the commercial market. All its products are certified organic under the Philippine National System and licensed with the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority ( FPA ) It also provides training seminars on and off-site for local government units, private companies and organizations in sustainable farming methods, solid waste management and organic farming. It also consults for non-government and private organizations, assisting them in starting organic farms around the country. GETTING THERE

Buro Buro Springs Vermi Farm can be reached through Bacolod City in Negros Island. The Bacolod-Silay Airport is serviced by Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific Air, Air Philippines and Zest Air with no less than 12 Airbus flights from Manila. There are also daily flights on smaller aircraft that connect Bacolod to Cebu twice daily. Bacolod can also be reached through its port that is serviced by several shipping companies like Negros Navigation. The city is also a primary conduit of the Roll On-Roll Off Nautical Super Highway with regular ferries run from Dumangas in the Panay mainland.