01, The More The Merrier – 156 Lipa City Families Succeed With Community “Stables And Greens” Gardens
The complete name of the DA project is: “Stables &
Greens: Agri-Livestock Integrated Support to Covid-19-Prone Areas” (ALIS-Covid
Project). The aim of “Stables & Greens” is “to mitigate the effects of the
pandemic by promoting agri-livestock household production for consumption and
the use of various technologies for meat, egg, and vegetable production.” Actually
gardens & farms.
Not just 1 family but we are talking here of 156 families in
the village of San Benito in Lipa City, some 55 km away from Manila. Even as
their Stables & Greens project started only last year, they have already
completed 3 harvests from their 1,500 sqm community garden, or from only 15% of
1 ha.
I
say: The many have succeeded with a few!
This is a collaborative project among the DA-Agricultural
Training Institute (ATI)-International Training Center on Pig Husbandry
(ITCPH), East-West Seed Company, and the Lipa City local government unit (LGU).
Quintin Piol, Barangay Chair of San Benito, says the participating families
“are very active in maintaining their garden with the help of the ITCPH and
East-West Seed.” ITCPH is piggery, and East Weed is vegetables – the news
release did not mention any livestock involved.
Actually, the DA project is aimed at assisting not only the
village of San Benito but 5 other villages of Lipa City: Pinagtong-olan,
Marawoy, Lodlod, Tambo, and Banaybanay. If those villages want the project to
benefit them, they have to be very active as San Benito.
The
DA is trying to help them – still they have to help themselves!
Mr Piol says the harvests go directly to the families’
dining tables, while they sell the rest to “earn extra income and contribute to
the group’s revolving fund.”
“The
group’s revolving fund” – That’s the (community) spirit!
The upper image shows Secretary of Agriculture William Dar,
who is ex-officio DA Chief, visiting the project site in San Benito. He said
the garden should be sustainable even after the project ends in 2022. That to
me explains the raising of the group’s revolving fund. (Also from San Benito,
the lower image[1] is from Agriculture.com.ph.)
Later, Mr Dar instructed the DA Regional Field Office in
Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal & Quezon) to introduce
off-season planting of crops and other technologies to increase the yields and
incomes of Calabarzon families. He said the target Stables & Greens
communities should also be included in the “Food Basket for Metro Manila Project”
by which provinces nearby would produce and supply raw materials for food for
the national capital region.
The
DA is all-out supporting farmers especially during this Covid19 lockdown. Lipa
City Mayor Eric Africa thanked Mr Dar and the DA for the many projects such as
animal dispersal, seed distribution, and farm-to-market roads, aimed at
benefitting disadvantaged families. The DA at your service.@LIBs
[1]https://www.agriculture.com.ph/2020/09/13/stables-and-greens-gardens-bring-food-and-hope-to-communities-in-batangas/
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