Fighting hunger through Fai th

Text and photos by Henrylito D. Tacio
Some years back, the Philippines was listed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as one of the 13 low-income food-deficit countries in Asia (“those that do not have enough food to feed their populations and for the most part lack the financial resources to pay for imports”).
The other 12 countries — most of them thickly populated — were Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
“In many developing countries, rapid population growth makes it difficult for agricultural production to keep pace with the rising demand for food,” wrote Don Hinrichsen in a report published byPopulation Reports. “Most developing countries already are cultivating virtually all arable land and are bringing more marginal land under cultivation.”
Jacques Diouf, at the time when he was the director-general of FAO, echoed the same concern. “Population growth continues to outstrip food availability in many countries,” he pointed out during the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome.
This alarms experts so much that the concept of food security came into existence. FAO defines it as a “state of affairs where all people at all times have access to safe and nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.”
People are said to experience lack food security when “either they cannot grow enough food themselves, or they cannot afford to purchase enough in the domestic marketplace.” As a result, “they suffer from micronutrient and protein energy deficiencies in their diets.”
 
Hidden hunger
Every night, an average Filipino joins at least 3.7 billion other people who go to sleep hungry. Their hunger, however, is not the growing, aching kind. Rather, it is silent, insidiously stunting their bodies and brains, weakening their immune systems, and sapping their energy — and prospects for living productive lives.
Their hidden hunger is malnutrition, which reportedly contributes to killing an estimated 40,000 people each day. “The impact of hidden hunger on people’s health is very real,” the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said in a statement. “It can result in more frequent and severe illness and complications during pregnancy, childbirth, infancy, and childhood.”
“We’re losing one generation after another to malnutrition and this just shouldn’t be happening anymore,” deplores Dr. Howart Bouis, a senior research fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based International Food Policy Research Institute.
Hunger is the world’s “most solvable problem,” declared the UN World Food Program. But in the Philippines, hunger persists across the country. But while the situation has improved, it has remains “serious,” according to the International Food Policy Research Institute said. In fact, the Philippines’ Global Hunger Index score of 13.2 ranks 28th worldwide.
 It is very alarming, indeed. Carin van der Hor, Country Director of Plan International, observed that malnutrition among Filipino children below the age of five has changed very little over the past 10 years. “The reduction of child malnutrition has been alarmingly slow,” Hor said.
Citing the National Nutrition Surveys done in 2011, Hor said that children below five years old who are underweight remain at 20 percent while children who are below the average height-to-age ratio remain at 30 percent.
According to Sen. Poe, without sufficient nutrition, children’s motor development slows down and their cognitive skills become stunted. “And this has a long-term negative impact on the development of our human capital. We cannot build the foundation of our future on emaciated bodies who are no longer in school. No nation on Earth can,” she decried.

FAITH Garden
To help solve the problem of hunger, a homegrown solution is being pushed by the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC), a non-government organization based in Kinuskusan, Bansalan, Davao del Sur.
MBRLC is using “FAITH” in its drive against malnutrition among rural areas. FAITH stands for “Food Always In The Home,” a vegetable gardening technology. It has been promoting the technology since the 1970s.
“With minimum capital and lots of native enterprise, a family can be assured of a steady supply of nutritious food – and even extra income,” says Roy Alimoane, MBRLC director.
FAITH not only provides food, but can also reduce a farmer’s heavy reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides which pose health and environmental hazards.
“FAITH is a type of vegetable gardening that can provide the necessary protein, vitamins and mineral requirements needed by a family with 6 members,” Alimoane points out. “We designed it in such a way that it requires minimum labor.”
As the name suggests, there will be vegetables – and some fruits – all throughout the year if its recommended plan is properly followed. Based on a study, the garden can provide 300 grams (or one bowl) of fresh vegetables daily.
The recommended FAITH garden size is 6×16 meters.
The most fertile area in the backyard should be selected for this type of garden. The area should contain humus, a form of plant food. The types of soil needed for vegetable gardening are loam, silt-loam, or clay loam.
“Establish the garden on a light slope to provide drainage, especially during rainy season,” Alimoane suggests. “If the area is flat, dig drainage channels or ditches around the planting site. The garden site must also receive sunshine throughout the day as growing plants need sunshine to manufacture food.”
In addition, the garden site should be located near water sources. “Water is very important particularly during the dry season,” Alimoane adds. “During rainy season, however, canals must be built to drain the water out from the garden plots.”
The garden is divided equally into 3 sections, with half of each section held in reserve for replanting. One section is planted with short-term vegetables that will be ready for use in two to 4 months such as soybeans, tomatoes, pechay (bok choy), cowpeas, bush sitao (string beans), radish, and sweet corn.
The second section is for crops which can produce vegetables for 6 to 9 months such as ampalaya (bitter gourd), okra, onions, garlic, eggplant, winged beans, golden squash, alugbati (vine spinach), and ginger. Vegetables that will produce for 11 to 12 months are grown on the third section likepatani (lima beans), kulitis,sayote (chayote), kangkong (morning glory),kamote (sweet potato), gabi (taro), 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 (kakawate), and Indigofera anil are planted; these can also be used as sources of green manure.
 
Basket composting
The central feature in FAITH gardening is basket composts, a series of raised garden beds set with bamboo baskets, about one foot in diameter and depth.
The baskets are filled with little animal manure (particularly goat manure) 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 3 to 4 month period as is necessary in the old method of composting,” Alimoane says.
However, the time to plant seeds or seedlings around the basket or trench composts depends on the state of decomposition of materials inside the compost. “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 3 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.
Since kamote, alugbati, and kangkong are crawling plants, these should be planted in separate beds one meter wide and 6 meters long with a distance of 50 centimeters between beds. The plants should be set 20 centimeters apart.
For patani and winged beans, two to 3 seeds per hill are planted around the composts. These two legumes are the main providers of proteins. Other plants which are good sources of protein are soybeans, string beans, and bush sitao.
Some crawling vegetables like cucumber,ampalaya, and patola (should be provided with trellis; otherwise the vines will become a problem later on.
“Leafy vegetables are high in iron, calcium, vitamin A, and other minerals,” Alimoane shares. It helps to maintain “FAITH.”