Councilor Philian Weygan-Allan has moved to institutionalize urban gardening in every barangay in a bid to help reduce malnutrition and address food scarcity in the city.
In a proposed ordinance penned by Weygan-Allan, private and government institutions and every household in the city are urged to utilize vacant spaces such as rooftops, patios, building walls (vertical gardening), public open spaces, and vacant lots or backyards purposely for urban/survival gardening in order to promote healthy and organic foods and, at the same time, ecological well-being.
Urban gardening is the process of growing of crops or ornamental plants in an urban setting.
Under the ordinance, a city-wide annual search for the best organic survival garden shall be conducted with the following categories: in-ground gardening, container gardening, and other forms that may be developed by the City Veterinary and Agriculture Office (CVAO).
The ordinance shall also mandate the CVAO to partner with the Department of Agriculture, the Barangay Agriculture and Fisheries Council (BAFC), and other offices/agencies/organizations for the promotion of existing measures established by the farming communities including indigenous communities to conserve and protect indigenous knowledge.
Similarly, the aforementioned implementing units shall support modalities including but not limited to urban greenhouse gardening and agriculture, container gardens, hydrophinics and aqua gardens, vertical gardens, and food scaping including those that relate to seed conservation and propagation, and other various ways.
Support shall likewise be extended to gardeners/farmers in the city who wish to engage in organic agriculture such as training, production, marketing, and branding. They shall be provided with capacity building to develop necessary skills in producing organic crops.
An amount of P200,000.00 shall be appropriated for the first year of implementation of the ordinance.This shall be included in the annual agricultural plan of the CVAO.
“Urban greening, survival gardens, container/vertical gardens, and edible landscapes are recognized by the city government as ingenious strategies to provide more food stability especially in the time of pandemic, thus the need to institutionalize them,” Weygan-Allan said.
The proposed ordinance was approved on first reading and was referred to the Sanggunian’s Committee on Market, Trade and Commerce, and Agriculture for review.
Earlier this year, the CVAO launched the Survival Gardening Project to help the urban dwellers cope with food scarcity which proved to be one of the worsening effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. **Jordan G. Habbiling