DILIMAN, Quezon City—The community-based urban agriculture garden of San Diego Elementary School (SDES) recently debuted as a merchant at the Department of Agriculture’s “Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita” at the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI). 

The SDES Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan (EPP) teachers and non-teaching personnel started selling their harvested leafy green vegetables, fresh and processed mushrooms, and other food products at the Kadiwa last on February 17, 2022. As such, they were able to gain a total of Php1,870 worth of sales.
“Kadiwa is an excellent and timely program of the DA; it gives an opportunity to our urban farmers to contribute to food security, while earning from it,” shared Dr. Silverio Estorco, SDES Principal.

The community-based garden of SDES was established through ATI’s support, under the Urban Agriculture Program (UAP). It was awarded as ATI’s 2021 Best Community-based Urban Agriculture and the first Learning Site for Agriculture (LSA) in the National Capital Region. They are the first to market their produce at the Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita, among the 61 established and assisted urban agriculture gardens in Quezon City and Caloocan City. It was with the help of the DA’s Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance (DA-AMAS) that they successfully put up their booth in the area.

ATI aims to empower community-based urban agriculture gardens, like that of SDES, into to becoming self-sustaining agriculture and fisheries stakeholders and agro-entrepreneurial entities. Hence, this is a way of capacitating the human resource involved in the food system, in line with ATI’s mandate under the One DA Reform Agenda.