This paper discusses the role of agricultural extension agents in the Philippine government’s organic farming promotion service. In the late 2000s, public agricultural extension agencies started to expand and promote organic farming, an agricultural innovation, in order to increase farmers’ income and enter the global organic market. However, organic farming is conceptually and technologically broad and incongruous with the government’s strategic promotion of the Green Revolution. Analyses of crop cultivation and food habits in the field reveal a gap between the goals of policies to promote organic farming and the local situation in terms of crops and agricultural inputs. Agricultural extension agents are expected to bridge this gap by generating solutions using existing natural resources and technologies available in villages. Observation of and participation in the extension activities of agricultural extension agents working with local residents suggests the need to move beyond the conventional discussion of a single linear extension model and to consider agricultural extension agents as “collaborators ” with farmers.
