Following the directions and strategies of the Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary William Dar to continuously make the agri-fishery sector resilient under the New Normal, the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) and the DA-Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), support the establishments of smart cultivation technologies producing crops all-year-round suitable for urban setting.
On January 28, during the 91st Founding Anniversary of DA-BPI, Secretary Dar led the groundbreaking of controlled environment agriculture technologies, namely: Smart Green House and Indoor Cultivation System, both of which are part of BPI’s “Surviving and Rebooting Agriculture in the City as Urban Farming” project.
Both cultivation technologies use controlled microclimate conditions suitable for growing crops all-year-round
They also make use of vacant indoor spaces productive making them suitable urban areas producing crops that are fresh and pesticide-free.
Secretary Dar, in his speech, instructed DA-BPI to include community gardening in various schools, barangays, and subdivisions nationwide as it expands the implementation of DA’s urban agriculture under the umbrella Plant, Plant, Plant program.
He added that urban agriculture is one way to mitigate high food prices by providing Filipino households with fresh vegetables produced right in their backyard and community gardens. It is also an effective strategy to improve food availability and accessibility and attain food security.
Also inaugurated were the Tissue Culture Laboratory and National Mushroom Culture Laboratory and Training Facility.
The Tissue Culture Laboratory, funded by DA-BAR, serves as an in-vitro gene bank to ensure the production of clean, quality, and disease-free planting materials of different high-value crops through rapid multiplication.
While the Mushroom Culture Laboratory is established to ensure the production of high-quality mushroom cultures and planting spawns.