Growing a healthy community

MANILA, Philippines - Every Filipino, young or old, knows “Bahay Kubo” by heart. The teachers, students, parents and barangay officials of Bonuan Boquig Elementary School in Dagupan City in Pangasinan province decided to bring the song to life with its winning entry in the Gulayan sa Paaralan contest.

Manuel Ferrer, school principal, says, “It’s not luck but the concerted, cooperative, collaborative efforts of all the stakeholders of their school” that made them win the top prize.

The school’s Longest Garden is complete with all the 18 vegetables mentioned in the song plus some additions – cherry tomatoes, lettuce, mustard, apollo and cuatro cantos tomatoes are planted in their 1,500 square-meter garden.

“It’s pick and pay for those who want to harvest in our garden,” Ferrer says. Proceeds go to their school’s supplemental feeding program as well as the maintenance of the garden and preparation for the next planting period.

Being the city winner in this contest, the school won P20,000 and will compete in a regional division of competition.

The seeds of the mission

The first step to the giant journey was started in July last year, when Ferrer was still the newly-designated principal in the school.

Planting started in November, with Ferrer going as far as Nueva Ecija to look for seeds to complete the list of vegetables enumerated in the song.

The school has spent about P20,000 for the structures and the plants in the garden, raised from donations, solicitations, fundraising activities and the school’s Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses.

The school’s garden goes far beyond the grocery list of Bahay Kubo. Station 1 is the mushroom culture area, while Station 2 is aquaponics, a system of aquaculture in which the waste produced by farmed fish or other aquatic animals supplies nutrients for plants grown hydroponically, which in turn purify the water. This section also has its hydroponics, which is a subset of hydroculture and is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions in water, without soil. It has a combination of plants with tilapia and red pacu culture-raised. The fish came from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

Station 3 is the livestock area with native chickens, while Station 4 is the vermiculture area for organic fertilizer and Station 5 is the Bahay Kubo Garden where all the vegetables mentioned in the song are planted –singkamas (turnip), talong (eggplant), sigarillas (winged bean), mani (peanuts), different lentils like sitao, bataw and patani, gourds including kondol, patola, upo and kalabasa, labanos (radish), mustasa (mustard leaves), sibuyas (onions), kamatis (tomato), bawang (garlic), luya (ginger) and linga (sesame seeds).

Grades 5 and 6 pupils in their EPP (Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan) class devote 40 minutes each class day gardening. “They learn not only through blackboards but experience the real work,” Ferrer says.

Teachers and parents also join them in the task. Barangay tanods support the good cause, providing security against thieves, especially at night.

Even beneficiaries of 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) joined the group as volunteers who gave free labor in the construction of structures for gardening.

The school fence was even turned into “The Great Wall of Mustasa” where empty plastic gallons of water were cut in half to grow the plant.

Ferrer says through this project, people, especially children, would have a positive attitude towards food production. “They develop here teamwork, cooperation, bonding and most of all harmonious relationships and self-reliance,” Ferrer says.

Rapid growth

Bonuan Boquig Elementary was previously not in the top 10 of the Gulayan sa Paaralan contest when then vice mayor Belen Fernandez, with the help of the Department of Education, launched this project Gulayan sa Paaralan to encourage school children to do gardening.

For six years, Lucao Elementary School was the consistent number one, until it was dislodged by Carael Elementary School for the past two years, in a back-to-back win, under the helm of Ferrer who was then its school principal.

With his new assignment, Ferrer wants to continue the winning streak, although at first the mission seemed impossible.

“I want this time to make Bonuan Boquig number one. It’s like pole vaulting, not just high jump,” he says.

In Carael Elementary School, Ferrer also initiated the Pechay Highway, Pinakbet Boulevard, Ampalaya Skyway and Upo Underpass.

Mayor Fernandez says since the project is already in its eighth year, she wants to institutionalize it by having it promoted by DepEd regionwide.

She lauded the winners, the participants, the teachers of the city and students for making the project a big success.

She adds she wants the ideas of the project to be imbibed among the students and for them to practice them in their own homes as part of fighting poverty and attaining food sufficiency.