By December 25, city residents will have a chance to view how a rooftop gardening is done right atop the Davao City Hall annex building itself along Magallanes St.
“All leafy vegetables and creeping plants like cucumber and Baguio beans will be showcased,” said Jovencio T. Umaguing, operations in charge of the city agriculture office.
Umaguing told the annual meeting of the Vegetables Industry Council of Southern Mindanao that intensifying the promotion of urban container gardening forms part of the five objectives of his office in helping cut down on poverty.
He said rooftop garden features all edible plants planted on containers.
“Through it, we intend to show that we can still grow the plants we need for the kitchen even without need of land,” he said.
He said the rooftop garden will be open to all with personnel from the agriculture office at hand to provide pointers to those interested in coming up with their own rooftop gardens.
He said his office has been supportive in providing production seeds to farmer-beneficiaries, to include cacao seedlings.
“We are actively pushing in making the city the chocolate capital of the Philippines through the promotion and propagation of cacao,” he said.
The agriculture office is also in the forefront of addressing the degradation of fish spawning grounds along the city’s 60-kilometer shoreline with emphasis on protecting fish sanctuaries.
“We have identified 10 sites that need to be protected if the livelihood of some 5,000 fisherfolks will be sustained,” he said.
The office is also into marketing assistance with the objective of providing producers a better pricing deal for their products.
The VICMIN, an organization of 80 farmers, producers and various stakeholders found the Davao provinces, is headed by its President Genovivo “Bong” Cajes. The other officers included: Roger Gualberto as vice-president, Jovito Cadigal as secretary, Charito Pasaol as treasurer, Mariam Tagoto as asst. treasurer and Joseph Noriel Sanchez as auditor.
