SM Foundation promotes urban gardening

MANILA, Philippines – Residents of three Metro Manila cities are learning urban gardening as SM Foundation recently launched the KSK Urban Gardening for Food Security project in Pasay, Muntinlupa and Mandaluyong.

The training is focused on the cultivation of vegetables making use of available spaces to learn the basics of urban agriculture, seed preparation and management, plant propagation, sustainable cropping, garden management, and proper harvesting.

Among the crops planted are leafy vegetables, tomatoes, okra, eggplant, bitter gourd and green pepper.

SM Foundation is collaborating with its new partner MacPlas Academy, the corporate social responsibility arm of Macondray Plastics Inc. specializing in provision of training for organic urban gardening. 

Also lending support to the program are the city governments of Pasay, Muntinlupa and Mandaluyong. 

The Department of Social Welfare and Development also takes on an active role providing capability-building lectures focusing on accounting, saving, and marketing, under the Community-driven Enterprise Program, which will help the participants earn additional income from their vegetable garden.

These projects bring the number of KSK training programs to nine so far for 2016.