March 29, 2024

The City Veterinary and Agriculture Office (CVAO) under Dr. Silardo Bested continues to distribute vegetable seeds to the city’s barangays aimed at ensuring food security and production at the household level.
CVAO agriculturist II Marcelina Tabelin said the program started in 2020 as one of the city government’s response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture.
During the start of the program, funding for the purchase of vegetable seeds was provided by the DA and CVAO through the Covid-19 fund of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO).
At present, Tabelin said the distribution activity’s funding has been integrated in the CVAO budget as an annual activity aimed not only as a Covid response but to ensure food security and production in the household level.
In celebration of July as Nutrition Month, the city’s barangay nutrition scholars (BNS) have been requested to get the seeds at CVAO for distribution to interested residents in their respective areas for backyard or container gardening purposes.
Tabelin said the seeds are not for commercial farmers but for households with backyards or those intending to plant the seeds using containers if they lack the space.
She said thousands of seeds have been given out for free since 2020 and are mostly those of pechay, lettuce, upland kangkong, snap beans, and others.
Those interested can visit CVAO at Slaughterhouse Compound, Sto. Nino barangay, or call 443-5332, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Meanwhile, residents and visitors, mostly in small groups, have already experienced the Summer Capital’s Farm Tourism Circuit since its launching May 1 at Happy Hallow barangay as part of the city’s celebration of Urban Farmers’ and Fisherfolk’s Month.
Tabelin said the project is a collaborative effort between the Department of Tourism-Cordillera and CVAO.
The Farm Tourism Circuit aims to promote and support farms and farmers in the city and provide experiential education to visitors and residents on their best agricultural practices, she explained.
Included in the circuit are permaculture, hydroponic farms and edible garden landscapes in Happy Hallow; strawberry farms at Sto. Tomas; rose gardens at Camp 7; and farms in Irisan that have received Good Agricultural Practices certification.
Tabelin said several of the farms have planted sunflowers and are waiting for their full bloom which will hopefully attract more residents and visitors to partake of the agri-tourism attraction.
She said the Farm Tourism Circuit has a targeted two-year timetable for it to be developed and reach its full potential.


Here’s ‘Truth’ by Gabriel Baban Keith: “ If beauty is in the eye of the beholder,/ Is it not so for truth?/ If beauty fades as time marches on,/ Does not truth fade the same way?/ For what is true today/ May not be true tomorrow./ Today happiness, tomorrow sorrow./ If beauty is material that can be shaped,/ Molded to one’s taste,/ Is it not so for malleable truth:/ Can it not be twisted, bended/ To one’s will?/ If beauty dies due to lack of care,/ Is it not so for truth in the prison/
Of despair?


May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ continue to bless and keep us all safe.