DOST pushes urban agriculture

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has introduced Urban Agriculture as an economic environmental and quality of life improvement opportunity during a three-day Science and Technology Conference at the DOST S&T Complex in Sudlon, Lahug.

Urban Agriculture means to shorten the scarcity of vegetables by growing vegetables intensively within the city limits. As a result it generates resilient new businesses within the community while improving the urban environment & our quality of life. 

Urban agriculture is done by substituting the large scale low labor, distant agriculture dependent on high transportation and distribution costs by small scale labor intensive, local, bio-intensive vegetable farming capitalizing on underused local resources: land, labor and organic material.

The four types of urban gardens / farms include the individual backyard gardens, community gardens, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and the commercial farms.

Urban Agriculture has economic, environmental and educational benefits as well.

Among the economic benefits of urban agriculture is that it creates direct and indirect jobs, it creates income that stays in the community, it transforms “yard waste” into a valued resource and reduces trucking disposal expenses. It improves home values near or with gardens, it adds value to public or private marginal land and it adds economic resilience to the community and builds “hometown security”.

It also has environmental benefits wherein it preserves the city’s organic capital, it retains moisture and reduces water runoff, cool off, and it sets improvement examples and enriches the soil and creates new, richer habitats.

It also creates neighborhood improvement. Esthetics and outdoor activity, builds community, crime reduction, it reduces lawns and associated costs / pollution and there is community carbon foot print reduction and creates carbon sequestration. It earns points for “green city” awards. 

It also has educational benefits where it teaches children and adults the origin of their food and how to grow it.

It was also deemed at making it as a unique social and intergenerational equalizer outdoor activity, teaches enjoyment of new and fresh produce, improves physical, mental and emotional health and creates availability of very fresh produce and healthy nutrition to all income levels.

According to statistics, 15 to 20% of the food consumed in the world is grown in an urban environment worldwide with 800 million people involved in it.

Other countries like United Kingdom and China practiced urban agriculture. UK employs 3,000 urban farmers while Shanghai, China produces 60% of the city’s vegetables, 100% of the milk, 90% of the eggs, and 50% of the pork and poultry meat.

Among DOST’s proposed objectives in implementing urban agriculture are to turn yard waste into a valuable resource and minimize disposal costs, improve our local economy resilience, food independence and jobs, build “hometown security” by creating small businesses & retain financial resources in the city, improve quality of life, health, esthetics, safety, healthy entertainment, gardening therapy, improve education, outdoor class rooms for the young and old and at the same time improve the community’s environment.

Among the speakers during the conference which started yesterday were Joan Jaque, who talked about Hydroponics, Green Curtains and Wall Gardens, Philip Cruz, who talked on Growing Herbs and Spices and Antonio Arnejo, from the UPLB Foundation Inc., who discussed about Using Science to Maximize Urban Gardens. — (FREEMAN)