SAGADA, Mountain Province – Some six beneficiaries of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) successfully establish their Gulayan sa Barangay project in Demang that contributed in providing for an additional source of food not only for their families but also for the community.
The Gulayan sa Barangay project was established in 2017 to produce assorted agricultural crops as additional source of income and food for the identified beneficiaries under the stewardship of Edna Bendadan.
Among the crops produced by the Gulayan sa Barangay in Demang include sweet potato, corn, cabbage, sugar cane, sili, tomato and other high value crops.
Demang punong barangay Jessie Bone Bosaing lauded the unrelenting and uncompromising efforts of the 4Ps beneficiaries to establish their Gulayan project which they were able to sustain over the past 5 years amidst the serious challenges and obstacles caused by the ongoing COVID-19 over the past 2 years.
He disclosed that the Gulayan project is one of the major sources of food for the families of the beneficiaries and the residents of the barangay at the height of the implementation of the series of lockdowns, thus, it is important for the beneficiaries to continue the project even if they will be graduating from the program to ensure the sustainability of agricultural crops in their community, especially that these are organically raised.
The 4Ps beneficiaries who worked hard to establish the Gulayan project admitted that it was difficult to start this but when everything got started, they had additional sources of their food supply aside from earning from their produce as to augment the amount they are getting from the government’s poverty alleviation program.
The Gulayan sa Barangay (GSB) aims to encourage individuals, families and communities of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) to implement community gardening activities that will eventually promote food production at the household and community level and ensure provision and access to fresh, organically produced and nutritionally rich foods to the Pantawid family members, especially children, towards nutrient sufficiency and food security.
Bosaing disclosed that the successful Gulayan project of the 4Ps beneficiaries motivated other residents in the community to be actively involved in backyard gardening to raise part of their food needs and sell their excess production inside and outside the community as additional sources of income.
Demang is the only barangay in the municipality to get various grants from the different poverty alleviation programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) which had been implemented over the past several years to effectively and efficiently address the high prevalence of poverty in the countryside.
