To boost a local urban farming project, Senator Cynthia Villar and the Bureau of Soils and Water Management delivered to St. Bosco Parish in Tondo, Manila, a composting equipment and a shredder to recycle kitchen and garden waste into organic fertilizers.
With the composting facility, the parish will have a steady supply of compost to enrich the soil of their urban garden project.
The parish, headed by headed by Father GC Carandang, has implemented a project entitled “Buhay sa Gulay” where residents from the nearby barangays grow their own food.
They are encouraged to plant vegetables like squash, upo, talong, and pechay in an 8,000-square meter vegetable garden that used to be a football field.
This is in partnership with the Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Agriculture and the local government of Manila.
The senator has been embarking on the composting of wastes and turning them into organic fertilizers which they distribute for free to farmers, urban gardeners and other stakeholders in the agricultural industry.
Aside from being cost efficient, Villar, chairperson of the Senate committee on Agriculture and Food, noted that using organic fertilizers would be beneficial to the environment
The senator has a successful waste recycling program in Las Piñas in all the 20 barangays of the city, which produces at least 60 tons of organic fertiLIzer monthly.
Villar has also passed legislations including the recent amendment to the Organic Law or RA 11511 introducing Participatory Guarantee System, a cheaper alternative to the Third Party Certification
“We must remember that over 95 percent of our food comes from the soil. Thus, soil health is important for agricultural productivity, which in turn will affect food security. And the solution is as simple as putting nutrients back to the soul through composting and going organic, said Villar.