SURIGAO DEL SUR – Moving forward to sufficient food in the household and community, the Jacinto P. Elpa National High School in Tandag City and its City Agriculture Office joined the Agricultural Training Institute and the Department of Agriculture’s goal through the establishment of an integrated urban agriculture garden on October 23-24, 2023.

The initial phase of the implementation included a technical briefing where Mary Jane Gonzaga, High-Value Crops Development point person, discussed the different types of urban gardening and vegetable cultural management. This was participated by 19 students from the said school.

It was then followed by the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between the grantee, Jacinto P. Elpa National High School and City Agriculture Office, and the grantor, ATI Regional Training Center XIII.

The school received vegetable seeds (pechay, pole sitao, squash, cucumber, eggplant, upland kangkong, patola and upo), gardening tools (dull bolo, hand shovel plastic sprayer, pick mattock, rake, seedling trays, shovel, sprinkler, and hand rake), and materials for the establishment of the garden (lumbers, bamboos, nails and paints).

As a result, the four types of urban vegetable garden namely: square-foot garden, container garden, landscape garden, and vertical garden were established.