“When communities are given science-based, accessible technologies, they gain the ability to grow more with less”
AT A time when cities expand faster than our capacity to feed them, and when climate stress reshapes the lives of ordinary Filipinos, innovation in agriculture is no longer optional—it is essential.
This is why the recent turnover of a solar-powered Indoor Cultivation System by the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Plant Industry to the Million Trees Foundation, Inc. is more than just another event.
It marks a meaningful shift in how we imagine food production in a megacity like Metro Manila.
Held inside the La Mesa watershed in Quezon City, the turnover brought together leaders from government, the water sector, civil society, and the academe—BPI Director Dr. Gerald Glenn Panganiban, represented by Assistant Director Dr. Herminigilda Gabertan and Engr. Elaiza Nicole Dotimas, MWSS Deputy Administrator Ryan Ayson, Maynilad’s Atty. Roel Espiritu, Quezon City Urban Farming Chief Cristina Perez, incoming Rotary 3780 District Governor Rhyan Virrey, PBDIC’s Butch Madarang, and our own dedicated team at MTFI.
Dr. Panganiban’s message captured the spirit of the moment: the ICS is “more than new equipment— it is a symbol of collaboration, innovation, and shared commitment to food security.”
For a country facing rising temperatures, shrinking green spaces, and ever-growing demand for fresh produce, such a tool—powered by clean solar energy, designed for soil-less vegetable production, and engineered for efficiency—represents a quiet revolution.
Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, in her message delivered by Perez, highlighted exactly why this matters.
Urban agriculture, she said, is an act of empowerment.
When communities are given science-based, accessible technologies, they gain the ability to grow more with less—less land, less water, and less environmental impact. In cramped and crowded cities, that empowerment is priceless.
For the Million Trees Foundation, this gift deepens our evolving role as stewards of nature and educators for sustainable living.
What began as the Annual Million Trees Challenge launched by then MWSS Administrator now MTFi Chairman Emeritus Gen. Reynaldo Velasco in 2017 has grown into a long-term mission: planting one million trees every year until 2030 to protect seven critical watersheds that supply water to Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, and Rizal.
Today, at the Million Trees Nursery and Eco-Learning Center inside the La Mesa Watershed, the ICS now joins our greenhouses for native and indigenous trees, composting machine area, carpentry shop, Circle of Life Mini Park, Sanctuary Park, Eddie’s Barn, and other facilities that together form a living classroom for sustainability.
This new system will support seedling research, make trainings more hands-on, and allow us to model climate-smart agriculture for barangays, schools, LGUs, and community groups.
I said during the ceremony: “With BPI’s support, we can transform innovation into meaningful impact for communities.”
The event also launched the Information Caravan on Urban Agriculture, an effort to teach vegetable gardening, pest management, food safety, and indoor cultivation. This is crucial—technology alone does not change lives; understanding and accessibility do.
Urban agriculture will not solve all our food vulnerabilities.
But it can spark transformation—pockets of green that multiply into habits, knowledge, livelihood, and resilience. It allows families to reclaim agency. It allows cities to breathe again.
In the end, the ICS turnover was not about a machine. It was about the promise it carries: that in every rooftop, every small backyard, every unused corner of a barangay, something fresh and hopeful can grow.
And if we nurture this promise together—government, private sector, civic groups, and everyday citizens—we cultivate not just vegetables but a greener, more secure future for our children.
As we enter the foundation’s fifth year in 2026, we look back with gratitude the support of the following individuals and institutional partners who have supported us during our fledgling years notably: SMC Chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang; Maynilad President Ramoncito S. Fernandez and Maynilad VP Anette De Ocampo; Manila Water and Manila Water Foundation; Santa Clara International and its Chairman Nic Linao; QBE and its Team Verde led by VP for Finance Art Arana; Grundfos led by its Country Director Josephine de la Serna; and, MWSS Administrator Leonor “Bobby” Cleofas.
At MTFI, we proudly join this mission. One innovation at a time. One community at a time. One tree—and now, one leafy green—at a time.
(The writer, president/chief executive officer of Media Touchstone Ventures, Inc. and president/executive director of the Million Trees Foundation Inc., a non-government outfit advocating tree-planting and environmental protection, is the official biographer of President Fidel V. Ramos.)
