Villar urges Tondo residents to plant more vegetables

MANILA, Philippines — Residents should plant vegetables such as squash, upo, eggplant and pechay in a vegetable garden that used to be a football field in Tondo, Manila, Sen. Cynthia Villar said yesterday.

Villar delivered composting equipment and a shredder to process kitchen and garden waste for the 8,000-square-meter urban farm of the St. John Bosco Parish to support its “Buhay sa Gulay” project and encourage residents to grow their own food.

The parish is implementing the project in partnership with the Departments of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform and the city government.

Villar, who chairs the Senate committee on agriculture and food, has a waste recycling program in Las Piñas that produces at least 60 tons of fertilizer a month. The fertilizer is given free to farmers and urban gardeners.

“We must remember that over 95 percent of our food comes from the soil. Thus, soil health is important for agricultural productivity, which in turn will affect food security. And the solution is as simple as putting nutrients back to the soil through composting and going organic,” she said.