SAYING farming is not only for provinces, Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte on Sunday called on residents to back urban farming.
Belmonte urged the people to put up their own backyard farm and assured them of her support.
She said the Office of the Vice Mayor can provide start-up kits, such as farming tools, seedlings and fertilizers, to anyone interested, regardless of their socioeconomic status.
“Anyone who wants to set up their own urban farm in their backyard, just come and coordinate with us. We will give them seeds,” she said.
“We can do it in a house, we can do it vertically. There are all kinds of farming techniques. Space is not an issue,” she added.
In 2010, the vice mayor launched the “Joy of Urban Farming” program to spread green thumbs among city dwellers, and to make the people adopt the idea of cultivating their own food through organic methods and other alternative and innovative gardening methods.
From three pilot farms, one of which was inside the Quezon Memorial Circle, Belmonte now hosts 166 urban farms that can be found in different barangays, public elementary schools, day-care centers, churches, and even in areas maintained by various non-government organizations from Districts 1 to 6.
She vowed to help households and organizations with available vacant lots set up their own urban farms.
“They’ll get rakes, shovels, watering cans and they might get a greenhouse. We’ll give them all their seedlings, and of course the necessary trainings,” she said, adding hands-on trainings would also be provided.
The program teaches families to start farming in their own backyards that can provide food security or extra income, improve nutrition and reduce poverty.
“Urban farming is not impossible. You just have to be creative,” Belmonte said.