Senator Cynthia Villar has cited urban agriculture and home gardening as the answers to the country’s ballooning population and 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 hometown Las Piñas. She has also been espousing these activities in other areas of the country.
The senator noted the significance of developing a “cash crop,” or agricultural products that can be grown while waiting for harvest season, and this includes planting vegetables, connecting them to consumers, and subscribing to other good agricultural practices.
She also mentioned that the Villar family has four farm schools located in the Las Piñas – Bacoor area for Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Mimaropa and Bicol; San Jose Del Monte City, Bulacan for Central, Northern Luzon and Cordillera provinces; San Miguel, Iloilo for Visayas and Davao City for Mindanao.
Villar has also been distributing free vegetable seeds nationwide to be used for home gardening. “This will ensure the availability of affordable and nutritious foods for Filipino families,” she said.
“This can also provide livelihood since the products are brought to the market,” the senator 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 added she also practices organic urban farming in Las Piñas City since 2002. To date, there are 89 composting facilities in almost all the barangays in Las Piñas 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.
The activity called “Villar Las Piñas Kitchen Wastes Composting Project” won the Energy Globe Award, an international award for environmental sustainability, according to the senator.
It was also recognized as the “World’s Best Environmental Project in 2022” during a ceremony in Austria.