The Cordillera office of the Department of Agriculture (DA-CAR) extended its support to the city government’s Urban Agriculture Project by providing vegetable seeds to the participants of the recently concluded Farmer’s Summit, which included cucumber, beans, pechay, and broccoli, to encourage them to plant vegetables even just for home consumption.
This was supported by Ms.Balbina Ernesto, RAFC Chairperson when she encouraged the participants to plant their own food.
Aside from seeds, 31 knapsack sprayers amounting to P139, 500.00 were distributed to the Outstanding Urban Gardener contenders.
According to Joan D. Bacbac, High Value Crops and Development Program (HVCDP) Regional Focal Person, the City of Baguio can avail of more interventions from the DA-CAR if the city can submit their actual data on agriculture. There is no data on agriculture for the city at the moment because the data is merged with that of Benguet. This data should include the location and total area of farms; number of farmers in the city; commodities produced by the farmers; and accredited organizations for DA interventions to be channeled, Ms.Bacbac added.
Councilor Leandro Yañgot, Jr., Committee on Market, Trade, Commerce and Agriculture, pushed for 1st Farmer’s Summit as part of the 1st Urban Farmers Month Celebration which served as a public consultation opportunity where issues, concerns, and problems and proposed solutions were gathered from the participants.
CouncilorYañgot believes that agriculture has been long forgotten in the City of Baguio so he promised as the Chairman on Committee on Market, Trade, Commerce and Agriculture, he will put agriculture in the forefront and to start with, he challenged all those involved in farming in Baguio to strengthen their strawberry production and he hopes to come up with an effective Agri-Tourism Plan that will be piloted in the Sto. Tomas Central.
By Karen T. Gawigawen