LGUs urged to adopt edible landscaping

MANILA, Philippines — Local government units (LGUs) and the private sector should adopt edible landscaping to ensure sustainable food sufficiency across the country, an official of the Climate Change Commission (CCC) said.

CCC commissioner Albert dela Cruz Sr. made the proposal, noting that the rising population and the decreasing availability of land for food production aggravate the growing concern over food security.

Dela Cruz said depressed communities in urban areas are the most vulnerable to problems of food availability due to lack of tillable land and food commonly comes from external sources.

“If most of our households were to utilize the open space within their properties, they could benefit by having their own sources of food even on the smallest scale possible,” he said in a recent statement.

Edible landscaping is the growing of organic vegetables, fruits, herbs and medicinal plants in landscaping.

The late Leonido Naranja from the then Crop Science Cluster of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños College of Agriculture started and executed the concept in 1999.

According to Dela Cruz, edible landscaping should not be considered merely as crop production as it entails a complex activity of planning, design, implementation and maintenance, as is similarly done in conventional landscaping.

“Edible landscapingcan be combined with bio-intensive gardening (BIG), which is commonly used in small spaces to increase productivity.

BIG is a crop production method designed to maximize the use of space and utilize the resources present in the surrounding environment,” he said.

“The aim is to produce safe and readily available nutritious food for the family and the community while creating an attractive and functional edible landscape and maximizing the use of all resources present in the site,” he added.

Dela Cruz is currently in the process of authoring and sponsoring a climate change policy for all public sectors to utilize a portion of their public funds to use of edible landscaping and gardening instead of ornamental plants.

He said the private sector could also utilize mechanisms provided under the Department of Agriculture (DA)’s Adaptation and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA), where institutional risks could be minimized in the appropriation of funds even as government investments would be protected as well.

“Through AMIA, development programs, projects and approaches could be adjusted to address climate change risks and this would not only benefit those who will invest in this new concept of edible landscaping and gardening but the whole country as well,” he said.

President Marcos, who concurrently heads the DA, previously said he has three “dreams” for the country’s agriculture sector – sustainable livelihood for farmers, affordable food for all and food security.

The President said he wants the Philippines to attain food self-sufficiency by prioritizing local production over food importation.