Community gardens are well known for providing an area for neighbors to grow fresh and healthy food close to home. Aside from improving food access, community gardens provide food security to the family and an avenue for strong neighborhood-level social change. (photo provided by Jisa T. Dulay, Development Management Officer-I)
City Agriculture Office, Metro Cagayan de Oro---For several months now, the ‘adopt-a-community’ scheme of the center in support to the Urban Agriculture Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) is a continuing effort to attain food security and become food sufficient among the city’s urban (and rural) communities through its “Go Urban Gardening: Making Food Available (GUGMA)” gardening initiative.
To encourage more gardening and planting activities in the metro, a Field Day and Harvest Festival for ATI-managed ATIng Gulayan ng DA Integrated Urban Agriculture Gardens will be mounted soon as Urban Agriculture Project Officer Cristine A. Galupo recently coordinated with the City Agriculture Office (CAO) urban agriculture facilitators for the upcoming event. The facilitators will identify five household garden entries per cluster for the Household Garden category and the list of community gardens for the Community Garden category.
The Household Garden Category includes the following criteria for judging: Aesthetic Value, Nutritional Value, Economic Value, Influence to Others, and Social Media Presence. While for Community Garden Category, all of the aforementioned criteria are included with the addition of Functionality.
In a nutshell, the center’s gardening initiative through "Go Urban Gardening: Making FOOD Available (GUGMA) is anchored via the Plant Plant Plant Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA). Since its early conceptualization last May 2020, GUGMA encourages households to plant vegetables especially in urban community areas. The program also encourages immediate neighbors to join together to organize, build, and manage a community garden since gardening brings an impressive array of benefits to their community and to each household.
The center’s GUGMA is also in support to the “Ahon Lahat, Pagkain Sapat Kontra sa Covid 19 or ALPAS COVID 19” of the Department of Agriculture (DA) where ATI implements the Urban Agriculture Program in the urban and rural areas of the different regions.
The simultaneous Field Day and Harvest Festival will be conducted on December 3, 2020 at 8:00 AM which will be livestreamed through the center’s ATI Facebook page. A virtual monitoring and evaluation of entries will be done a week before December 3, 2020 through the Partnership Accreditation Services (PAS) headed by section chief Anita L. Molijon, RPAE.