Council OKs urban food gardening measure

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Council has approved an ordinance institutionalizing urban food gardening in the city.

Authored by Councilor Alvin Dizon, the ordinance is entitled “Urban Food Gardening Ordinance of Cebu City”.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the fundamental importance of food security as people have realized the benefits of growing one’s food at home and embarking on their own urban edible garden,” read the ordinance.

“Food is fundamental and building food communities through urban food gardening in barangays help to address long-term resilience and food security especially preparing community-based food system in the face of multiplying disasters to come such as pandemics, fires, floods, and other natural and human-made calamities,” it added.

It is the declared policy of the city government to create greener spaces in communities to help curb the increasing problem of air pollution, and to strongly promote and thus institutionalize urban food gardening not only for the city’s livability, but in the long run, make healthier foods available for the people and provide more food stability within the city especially during pandemics and disasters, among others.

Section 4 of the ordinance provides that the City Agriculture Office (CAO) together with the Punong Barangays and chairpersons of the Committee on Environment and Health of the Barangay Council shall spearhead the promotion and development of urban food gardens in their respective barangays by engaging the commitment and participation of the residents and all sectors in the community to establish their own innovative community gardens or household vegetable patches.

The urban food gardens shall be in the form of rooftop or green roof, window, vertical or wall, pots and small container, among others.

Section 7 states that the CAO, in coordination with the Association of the Barangay Councils (ABC), shall formulate a program that provides the needed support, incentives and technical assistance to the barangays in the institutionalization of their community food gardens using sustainable, eco-friendly and organic gardening methods and practices.

The same office in coordination with the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) and City Planning Office shall conduct an inventory of city-owned vacant lots that can be utilized as land for gardening by community groups and individuals for the shared benefit of the community.

To maximize available open spaces within the city for food production, CAO in coordination with the City Legal Office, Cebu City Environmental and Natural Resources Office (CCENRO), Cebu City Parks and Playgrounds Commission, shall formulate guidelines on the utilization or conversion of the open spaces in subdivisions and vacant/idle private lots, among others, into urban food gardens.

Section 10 states, “It shall be unlawful for private subdivisions, homeowners’ associations, sitios, and similar villages in the City of Cebu to ban or put undue restrictions on the growing and maintenance of edible gardens as an accessory activity within private households so long as the activity does not affect the residential character of the neighborhood, and without prejudice to reasonable standards of neatness and appearance imposed by the homeowners association and the authorities.”

The violators shall be imposed with penalties. For first offense, warning; second offense, P2,000 fine, and third offense P3, 000 fine.

For the effective implementation of the ordinance, the city government shall appropriate the amount of P10 million annually to defray necessary expenses such as purchase of basic agricultural inputs and materials like seeds, quality planting materials, organic fertilizers, garden soil and tools to promote urban food production, among others.

The CAO will be the primary implementing office which shall formulate the implementing rules and regulations for the effective implementation, study and make recommendations regarding the impact of urban food gardens, to name a few. — FPL (FREEMAN)