This preprint examines how ready New Lucena, Iloilo, Philippines is to shift to natural farming. Using surveys, focus group discussions, interviews, participatory workshops, and policy review, the study looks at farmers’ views, knowledge, practices, and the support systems around them. The findings show that participating respondents and stakeholders generally see natural farming as healthier, less costly, and helpful for community learning. However, wider adoption is still limited by low technical confidence, inconsistent access to materials, weak follow-up extension support, low youth participation, limited market incentives, and uneven coordination among institutions. Overall, the study suggests that New Lucena shows early signs of readiness for natural farming, but the transition is still incomplete and will require stronger technical, material, and institutional support. The paper provides evidence for developing a gender-responsive, community-based, and research-informed extension framework for sustainable agriculture.
Becodo et al. (Sun,) studied this question.