In line with the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Plant, Plant, Plant program and its efforts towards establishment of food-resilient communities amidst the pandemic, the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) turned over the Edible Landscape (EL) garden to DA on 20 December 2021 at the DA Central Office grounds, Diliman, Quezon City.
Dubbed as “Hardin ng Kalusugan at Pagkain,” the garden is established to promote EL in urban communities as an additional source of available, fresh, and nutritious food for every Filipino family.
The said initiative is part of a project titled, “Magtanim ng Gulay Para sa Isang Masagana, Malusog, at Makulay na Buhay,” funded by the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar and UPLB professor and former chancellor Dr. Fernando Sanchez, Jr. led the ribbon cutting ceremony and the symbolic turn-over of a shovel—symbolizing sustainable food production, through Edible Landscaping, to help address food and nutrition security. Joining them were the key officials of the department.
Dr. Sanchez, Jr., project leader and head of the UPLB EL team, acknowledged DA and DA-BAR for its support in urban agriculture promotion.
“This project was inspired by our wanting for more food in urban areas and we thought that it is important to start this at the Department of Agriculture. The basic thing is organic and what you see here are organic vegetables and they are dispersed inspired by Usec. Evelyn [Laviña]. We thought that this mix of things that are beautiful and edible are ideal at this point in time especially we thought that the DA should really be the model for that,” DA Undersecretary for Regulations Engr. Zamzamin Ampatuan said in his message.
The concept of the design for the DA demo garden was based on the logo of the department while the metal stand of the marker symbolizes and encourages crop production and urban agriculture.
Edible crops used are eggplant, tomato, bush sitao, tarragon, radish, mustard, pechay, sili, and variegated calamansi, with a combination of some ornamental plants such as marigold and vinca.