AN urban gardening project launched in Barangay Carmen, Cagayan de Oro City last week is being considered for replication at the household level in the city, a top City Hall official said today.
“Last week (the country’s telecommunications company) PLDT-Smart in cooperation with the non-government organization (NGO) Peace Crops…in cooperation with the barangay council of Carmen launched their urban gardening project at the Peace Crops office in Barangay Carmen,” City Administrator Roy Hilario Raagas said in Visayan during Tuesday morning’s flag-raising program.
Raagas called on the City Agricultural Productivity Office to coordinate with PLDT-Smart for the urban gardening project that forms part of the company’s corporate social responsibility component.
Small plant boxes were distributed by PLDT-Smart to the beneficiary households in Barangay Carmen to kick off their urban greening initiative, Raagas said.
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the City Agricultural Productivity Office launched its own urban gardening project at the barangay level in order to encourage households to grow their own vegetable produce and generate additional income.
“If possible we can extend the urban gardening initiative of PLDT-Smart to the urban barangays numbers 1 to 40. Our office will coordinate with them along with the City Agricultural Productivity Office and other stakeholders like our barangay officials to decide how best to push this urban gardening project…(the idea is to maximize our living space) for greening activities such as growing our own vegetables,” Raagas said.
Raagas also called on department heads and their staff to look for ways to do their part in promoting urban gardening in their offices.
“PLDT-Smart seeks to replicate their urban gardening initiative (at the citywide level)…In City Hall we can look for ways to maximize our living spaces and see if we can possibly use them for urban gardening,” Raagas said. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)
