'Gulayan' launched in 2 Mindanao provinces

DIPOLOG CITY, Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) launched here recently the government’s Programang Agrikulturang Pilipino-Gulayan sa Paaralan in Western Mindanao (WM) selecting this province and adjacent Zamboanga Sibugay as its priority areas for the region.

Marcial Fantone, DA’s region 9 coordinator for High Value Crops Development Program, said the two provinces, earlier included in the country’s top 10 poorest local government units, have also the highest rates of malnourished school children in WM.

The DA, Fantone said, has targeted some 500 public elementary and secondary schools in the Christian-Muslim region for the establishment of vegetable gardens in the next five years.

The launching event was followed by a series of training-workshops for local teachers and school administrators on proper vegetable growing and management in strategic towns of the two provinces, Fantone said.

He added that under the “Gulayan sa Paaralan” project, the DA, in coordination with the Department of Education (DepEd), will provide assorted vegetable seeds and seedlings and other high-value plant materials to the recipient schools.

To ensure the program’s successful enforcement, Fantone said, the DA has also partnered with other agencies including the Department of Health, National Nutrition Council, Department of Interior and Local Government and Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The “Gulayan” plan, if properly sustained by concerned schools, will strongly show to school children in rural and urban communities that eating vegetables is important to stay healthy, Fantone said, adding that the program “will further contribute to the DA’s goal for food security and food sufficiency of the country.”