Recognizing the potential of urban agriculture in addressing hunger and poverty, the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center-Cordillera Administrative Region (ATI-RTC-CAR) strengthens its commitment to the Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty (EPAHP) by implementing capacity-building initiatives focused on Basic Urban and Peri-Urban Agricultural Technologies. Relative to this endeavor, the Center conducted a training on basic hydroponics held on April 14-16, 2025 at the ATI-RTC-CAR, BSU Compd., La Trinidad, Benguet and at the DomeGarden, Virac, Itogon, Benguet.
The training aimed to equip community members and agripreneurs with the technical knowledge and skills required to adopt innovative urban farming solutions. It emphasized practical applications of hydroponics and other sustainable farming techniques, ensuring that participants could implement and scale these technologies in their respective communities.
According to Ms. Perla L. Epie, Project Officer and Urban Agriculture Focal Person, urban and peri-urban agriculture presents a viable strategy for ensuring food security by enabling communities to grow crops within limited spaces. One of the most promising approaches in this field is soilless farming, specifically hydroponics, which allows plants to thrive in nutrient-rich water solutions rather than soil. This method is particularly beneficial for urban dwellers, as it enables them to cultivate crops efficiently in small areas, ensuring a continuous supply of fresh produce. Hydroponics also offers numerous advantages, including water conservation, higher crop yields, reduced reliance on chemical inputs, and resilience to climate variability. By integrating this technology into urban farming systems, communities can enhance food production, improve nutrition, and create economic opportunities.
A total of twenty-six (26) farmer-beneficiaries of EPAHP attended the said training.
The EPAHP program is the enhanced version of the original Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty (PAHP) program to include additional partners, roles, and responsibilities upon the signing of the Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty (EPAHP) Program Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), on December 9, 2019. This is to institutionalize the collaborative efforts among the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), and the Department of Agriculture (DA) as one of the key strategies of the Government, in addressing critical concerns on hunger mitigation, food and nutrition insecurity and poverty reduction.
