SARIAYA, Quezon, Philippines – Instead of giving out medals and trophies to winners, a vegetable production competition involving public elementary and high schools in the second district of this province recently gave out unique prizes: classrooms.
“To win the classrooms, all the students had to do was to tend to their respective vegetable gardens in their schools and make sure that they would produce the highest yield,” said Quezon Rep. Proceso Alcala.
Alcala launched in 2007 the project “Procesong Gulay Para sa Masaganang Buhay: Gulayan sa Paaralan Best School Implementor Contest.” The competition, now on its second year, aims “to generate interest in vegetable production among public schools using environment-friendly and organic/natural farming practices.”
This year’s contest was participated in by 177 public elementary and high schools in Lucena City and the towns of Sariaya, San Antonio, Dolores, Tiaong and Caldelaria. Last year, 159 participants joined the contest.
Crops grown by the students in their gardens included eggplant, tomato, string beans, okra, and other cash crops.
The San Antonio Central Elementary School in San Antonio won the grand prize of a school building with three classrooms. The students who tended the plot took home P10,000.
The Montecillo Elementary School in Sariaya took second place with a prize of a school building with two classrooms. The pupils won P7,000.
The Tamisian Elementary School in Tiaong won third place with a prize of a school building with one classroom. The pupils were awarded P5,000.
Construction of the school buildings is ongoing and will be finished before classes start in June, according to Alcala.
Cash prizes were also awarded to outstanding performers at the municipal and city levels.
Alcala told The STAR he envisioned his district as a food basket of the Southern Tagalog region. He is confident his district can also grow in bulk vegetables like carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage.
The Gulayan project is supported by the Department of Education, local government units and the Allied Botanical Corp. which supplied all the seeds the students used in their vegetable gardens.