THE BATTLE AGAINST MALNUTRITION

By Henrylito D. Tacio
Every two seconds, five people are added to the global population.  Three are Asians.  This large contribution is due not to a higher-than-average growth rate but to the region’s large population base.
 “The most immediate implication of rapid population growth is the need for more food,” says the Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI).  “This can be met in two ways domestically: by expanding the agricultural land base and making better use of cultivated land.”
 Historically, overcrowding and low productivity were remedied by people moving onto less populated, more fertile land.  In the Philippines, this was practiced mostly by “kaingineros” (slash-and-burn farmers) in the past. 
But such is not the case anymore.  Today, most arable land is already heavily farmed, and in some countries, poor management and deteriorating environmental conditions are reducing the amount of productive land.
 As a result, one in nine people in the world goes to sleep every night without eating, the annual report of the UN Food and Agriculture (FAO) says.  But the good news is: the number of hungry people has dropped by more than 100 million in the past 10 years and by more than 200 million in the past two decades.
 But despite the drop in the number of hungry people around the world, many Asians still remain malnourished, FAO says.
 Let’s take the case of the Philippines as an example.  In a study conducted by the Department of Education some years back, it was found that a total of 62.5 percent of 7-10-year-old public elementary school children were underweight, with only 32.5 percent considered normal.
 A similar survey done by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute, a line agency of the Department of Science and Technology, showed that 0.2 percent of two-year-old children are afflicted with night blindness or Bibot’s spot.
 Because of this, health experts consider fighting malnutrition as an important development effort.  “Only well-nourished children can grow to their physical and mental potential, fully benefit from education opportunities available, and maximize their contribution to the growth of the Philippine economy,” says Dr. Paul Sommers, who used to be with United Nations Children’s Fund. 
One of the best things Filipinos can do to fight malnutrition is to start right in their own backyard.   That may sound a cliché, but not to the advocates of a non-conventional form of vegetable gardening. 
 They say that, with minimum capital and lots of native enterprise, it can assure needy families of a steady supply of nutritious food – and even earn them extra income. 
The advocates call it Food Always In The Home (FAITH) gardening.  They claim the method can likewise reduce the country’s heavy reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides that pose health hazards and wreak havoc on the environment.
 “FAITH is a type of vegetable gardening that can provide the necessary protein, vitamins, and mineral requirements needed by a family with six members,” explains Roy C. Alimoane, the director of the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) Foundation, Inc.
As designed, the 100-square-meter FAITH requires minimum labor.  “As its name suggests, there will be vegetables all year round if our recommended plan is properly followed,” he points out.
 Enriquetta B. Torres, in an article, writes that home gardening can reduce by about 20 percent a family’s total daily food expenditures.
 The garden is divided equally into three sections, with one-half of each section held in reserve for later replanting.  One section is planted with short-term vegetables that will be ready for use in two to four months.  Examples: soybeans, tomatoes, pechay, cowpeas, bush sitao, radish, and sweet corn.
 The second section is given over to crops which can produce vegetables for six to nine months, among them ampalaya, okra, onions, garlic, eggplant, winged beans, golden squash, alugbati, and ginger.  Vegetables that will produce for 11 to 12 months are grown on the third section like patani, kulitis, sayote, kangkong, camote, gabi, cassava, and kadios.
 Along the boundary of the garden and in the year, permanent and semi-permanent crops are grown.  Among these are malunggay, papaya, pineapple, calamansi, and guava.  For fencing purposes, nitrogen-fixing species like Flemingia macrophylla, Desmodium rensonii, Gliricidia sepium (locally called “kakawate”), and Indigofera anil are planted; these can also be used as sources of green manures. 
The central feature in FAITH gardening is basket composts, a series of raised garden beds into which bamboo baskets are set about one foot in diameter and depth.  These are filled with a little animal manure (particularly goat) and some decomposed organic garbage and packed with leaves of leguminous trees and shrubs.  If basket composts are too laborious to do, you can also make trench composts. 
If manure is not available, the leaves of leguminous trees and shrubs (flemingia, rensonii, kakawate and/or indigofera) will do.  These are stuffed into the basket or trench composts to provide nitrogen and other nutrients needed by growing crops.
 “You can immediately use the composts without waiting for the usual three to four months period as is necessary in the old method of composting,” Alimoane differentiates.
 However, the time to plant seeds or seedlings around the basket or trench composts depends on the state of decomposition of materials inside the composts.  “If the materials at the bottom part are nearly decomposed, seeds and/or seedlings can be planted immediately,” says Alimoane.  “But if most of the materials are still fresh, planting may be done two to three weeks later.”
 Like most gardening, good management is necessary.  The reserved areas should be planted in time so that there would be continuous supply of vegetables throughout the year.
 The MBRLC has produced a fully-illustrated manual on FAITH gardening.  If you want to order, please email the center at mbrlc@mozcom.com.