Within the mountainous land bound area of Barangay Mendoza in Palawan lays seven bio-intensive gardens in Sitio Taliwara/Little Baguio, Purok Mauranen, Purok Durian, Purok Malungkot, Purok Old site, Purok Proper 1, and Purok Proper 2. It is with the aim to address malnutrition and food insecurity that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program enjoins program beneficiaries from these communities in adopting bio-intensive-gardening (BIG).
BIG is a gardening technique where indigenous seeds and organic fertilizers are used to grow vegetables. It is an organic agricultural system which focuses on simultaneously increasing biodiversity. This technique is most suitable to remote areas as it focuses on achieving maximum yields using small patch of land. The difference of this technique to the common farming method is that seeds are planted in more saving arrangements so that farmers can utilize the land more efficiently. This will allow them to plant different kinds of vegetables for them to consume.
Barangay Mendoza has been continuously on top of the list of barangays in the municipality with the highest rate of malnutrition. It was found out in last year that out of ten children in the barangay, eight of them are malnourished. The family development session (FDS) of Pantawid was used as an avenue to discuss the necessary actions to undertake in order to resolve the problems in the area. And with insights from the FDS with the topic on environmental education and information and organic agriculture orientation, the conduct of BIG project was proposed.
Through the help and initiative of their municipal link, Valerie Magallado, each clusters conducted their own group meetings separately in the leadership of their parent leaders. In here, they discussed groupings and distributed tasks among each group to take up with their community garden. They have also discussed and agreed upon schedules to take turns in caring for the garden. After several meetings, the community gardens were established in December 2016.
For the seeds that they use, some usually comes from member’s own backyard garden while some were bought from the market. Vegetables which are usually planted are eggplants, okra, tomatoes, string beans, radish, squash, and sili among others. They also plant flowers and other plants to repel unwanted insects in their crops.
Few months after the establishment, there have been bountiful harvests from the garden. It was decided that the yield will be sold to members with a price relatively cheaper than those in the markets. The money which they accrued from their yield is saved for the future uses of the group since it was a collective effort. Some of the clusters wanted their money to be used as capital to buy female swine. The piglets of the swine will be distributed to each of its members rotationally for their personal consumption. For their first harvest, each cluster has gained 500 to 3,000 pesos.
Seeing the benefits from the garden in the long term, most of the members of the seven clusters want to sustain the project as it provides them cheaper and nutritious food for their families to consume. “Dati yung mga bata wala talagang makain dito sa amin lalo na’t mahal ang mga pagkain, pero ngayon kumukuha na lang kami sa garden namin para may mapakain sa mga anak namin (Children in our community before do not have anything to eat since food is expensive, but now with the vegetables from our garden, we can already provide them food to eat),” said Emmi Delaguna, parent leader of Purok Proper 2. More than the money they get, the members said that they can also practice bayanihan which strengthens their sense of camaraderie.
But while most of the members showed eagerness to perform their assigned duties and responsibilities to maintain their garden, members of some clusters showed disinterest due to problems with the location, which is in the case of Purok Malungkot and Purok Proper 1. The garden of Purok Malungkot was situated near their barangay hall which is far from the houses of other members. Therefore, some members find it inconvenient to go to their community garden as they also have their own backyard gardens at home. Meanwhile, in Purok Proper 1, members are having a hard time watering the garden since they only rely on the river near it, which most of the time dries out. When asked about their future plans, parent leader Melanie Cadenas of Purok Proper 1 and parent leader Adeliza Heredero of Purok Malungkot said that their members think of finding another location for the garden to start again.
In the initial phase of project implementation, the community gardens have successfully served as main or alternative source of nutritious food for the partner beneficiaries. And despite challenges being encountered in the project, it is hoped that hunger and food insecurity among the Pantawid beneficiaries in the area will be eliminated in the long term, in order to reduce the impact of poverty in the poor Filipino families. The project is also set towards improving and increasing vegetable production and consumption in the succeeding months by tapping additional partners such as the Department of Agriculture, to teach the members with the methods of sustainable food production. ###
