An environment-friendly  way to raise veggies

Vegetable farmers in Barangay del Monte, Buug, Zamboanga del Sur have discovered a way to improve their income while helping manage the town’s garbage problem. 

Making it possible is a partnership between the local government and the Gawad Kalinga Foundation which allowed them to set up a composting facility in its housing project under Buug’s solid waste management program.

Participating farmers have improved on traditional composting practices by producing probiotic activated compost which they use to grow healthier vegetables at lower costs. USAID-funded Philippine Environmental Governance (EcoGov) Project provided funding support through a grant to Gawad Kalinga for the composting project.

One of the beneficiaries, 33-year-old Danilo Noval says: “The cost of the probiotic compost is lower than the chemical fertilizers that we used to buy. The plants are not susceptible to pests and we don’t have to buy chemical sprays anymore. A few months after using the compost, I already saw the difference. My cucumber and tomato plants were much healthier.”

Danny’s last two harvests yielded a third more than his usual production in previous years when he still used chemical fertilizers. He sells his produce to the market in Buug and the neighboring town of Diplahan in Zamboanga Sibugay and is getting better returns than before. “I am not the only one who can speak of this experience.  Other farmers here have similar stories.” 

Gawad Kalinga has 35 household members in the barangay. About the same number are employed in the composting facility while about a third are into vegetable farming. The partnership between Buug and Gawad Kalinga aims to achieve the waste diversion target mandated by the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act or RA 9003 by composting the town’s biodegradable market waste that totals almost half a ton daily. It augments the household composting program being implemented in the residential sectors of Buug’s eight urban barangays.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, through the EcoGov Project is helping improve the capability of the local government and the communities to make informed decisions and implement activities that address environmental threats while employing the concepts of good environmental governance.