Senator Cynthia Villar has cited urban agriculture and home gardening as the answers to the country’s ballooning population and the increasing food demand and consumption.
Villar, chairperson of the Senate Agriculture and Food committee, said she has been practicing urban agriculture and home gardening in her home city in Las Piñas.
The veteran legislator has also been espousing these activities in other areas of the country.
“Mahalaga sa ating magpapalay ang pagkakaroon ng cash crop habang naghihintay ng pag-ani.”
“Mahalaga sa ating magpapalay ang pagkakaroon ng cash crop habang naghihintay ng pag-ani, at ito ay ang pagtatanim ng gulay, pagdikit nito sa mamimili, at pagsunod sa good agricultural practices o GAP,” the seasoned lawmaker explained.
The lady senator also mentioned that the Villar Family has four farm schools located in Las Piñas – Bacoor for NCR, Regions 4A-4B at Region 5; San Jose Del Monte City, Bulacan for Central, Northern Luzon and Cordillera; San Miguel, Iloilo for Visayas and Davao City for Mindanao.
She has also been distributing nationwide free vegetable seeds to be used for home gardening.
“This will ensure the availability of affordable and nutritious foods for Filipino families,” Villar said.
“This can also provide livelihood since the products are brought to the market.”
“This can also provide livelihood since the products are brought to the market,” she added during the Harvesting Festival and Farmer’s Field School Graduation of the Upscaling of the “Gulayan sa Palayan at Pagnenegosyo” held in Castillejos, Zambales.
Villar further related she is also an organic practitioner in Las Piñas City since 2002.
To date, there are 89 composting facilities in almost all the barangays in Las Pinas and 50 in Vista Land and Camella communities nationwide.
A composting machine can produce 1,000 kilos of organic fertilizer per month from
kitchen and garden wastes from 500 households in Las Piñas City.
She extolled that this activity called “Villar Las Piñas Kitchen Wastes Composting Project” won the Energy Globe Award, an international award for environmental sustainability.
It was also recognized as the “World’s Best Environmental Project in 2022” during a ceremony in Austria.
Furthermore, Villar congratulated all the graduates and thanked Castillejos, Zambales Mayor Jeffrey Khonghun and Dr. John de Leon of PhilRice and the East West Seeds Foundation.
