EDITORIAL

Backyard Vegetable Project

To Benefit 900,000 Families

The Department of Agriculture (DA) will expand in 2009 its national backyard-based planting program {that is expected} to help 900,000 rural and urban poor households supplement their food requirements and raise their incomes.

Besides vegetables, the food production program will include root crops and fruits starting this year, said Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap during the launching in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija of the “Bayan-Anihan” project of the DA and the private sector-led Gawad Kalinga (GK) movement.

Yap told Madyaas Pen after the Bayan-Anihan event that the DA’s expanded Gulayan prog-ram will give priority to families in rainfed areas and low-income provinces.

“We planned to implement fully this Gulayan program before the onset of the wet season last May,” Yap said.

The Bayan-Anihan project at two farm sites at the Nuestra Senora de Soledad Village in Barangay Tabon will benefit 62 families who are planting kangkong, egg-plant, okra, ampalaya, sili and tomato in vegetable beds provided for them by Globe Telecom Globe Telecom, one of the country’s leading telecommunications companies, has com-mitted to adopt 35 farms under this project.

Also present during the launching of the Bayan-Anihan in these two Nueva Ecija sites were Mayor Sonia Lorenzo of San Isidro ; lawyer Joe Tale, chairman of GK; Tony Meloto, the advocate champion of GK; John Concepcion, president of Bayan-Anihan Foundation Inc.; Jeffrey Tarayao, community relations head of Globe Telecom; and Dr. Ruben Sevillejo, president of the Central Luzon State University .

The Bayan-anihan Program aims to establish backyard vegetable farms in almost 100 sites in Luzon last month alone as part of the joint efforts of the DA and GK to ensure food security and generate jobs for hunger-prone families.

Director Rene Rafael Espino of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani-High-Value Commercial Crops (GMA-HVCC) said the opening of the Nueva Ecija site was just one among the many activities simultaneously held in almost 100 Bayan-anihan sites across Luzon over the weekend.

Espino said the ceremony, dubbed the “Bayan-anihan SaBAYANg PagtaTANIM” in Nueva Ecija, kicked off with a Goodbye Gutom Rally led by Meloto, followed by the Call to Plant by Yap .

During the event, vegetable seedlings were turned over by Yap and Meloto to representatives of the beneficiary communities of the Globe Farms in San Isidro.

Espino said the Bayan-anihan project will be implemented in communities situated near GK’s hub of operations in the country’s poorest provinces, with a minimum of 30 families per site.

These initial 115 sites are found in Metro Manila, Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley , Central Luzon, Calabarzon, (Cavite , Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), MIMAROPA (Mindoro Oriental and Occidental, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan ) and Bicol.

Bayan-Anihan aims to cover a total of 500 sites all over the country in 2009, of which 225 will be in GK sites and 275 in non-GK sites, while another 2,000 sites are targeted for 2010 and 2011.

The GK, which is best known for building houses for the poor, has already partnered with other government agencies—among them the DepEd and Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Housing and Urban Development Coor-dinating Council (HUDCC) on its various programs, but this is the first time that it is officially teaming up with the DA in carrying out a food sufficiency program. Yap, who has been an active participant in GK projects since he was administrator of the National Food Authority in 2002, said the support of private sector groups such as Gawad Kalinga is crucial in helping Government achieve President Arroyo’s goal of providing food on the table of every Filipino family. /MP