A seven-hectare idle lot in Barangay Bagong Silangan, Quezon City will be turned into an urban garden to promote farming and help reduce poverty, eradicate hunger, and contribute to food security among marginalized villages in Metro Manila, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said on Wednesday.

The land, donated by the Quezon City government, will be used for the second "Buhay sa Gulay" (Life in Vegetables) project to be launched in Barangay Bagong Silangan on Friday, January 8.

DAR Secretary John Castriciones said the urban farming project is not a dole-out but a self-help startup livelihood project where concerned government agencies and organizations will converge, share resources, and offer an opportunity to enable the urban farmers to produce and eat fresh healthy vegetables and provide them with an additional source of income.

The DAR and Department of Agriculture have linked arms with the local government of Quezon City, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Bread Society International, DAR agrarian reform beneficiaries organizations, and residents of Barangay Bagong Silangan to develop the seven-hectare idle land into a vegetable production hub.

Castriciones said an estimated annual vegetable production per hectare will be able to produce 765 metric tons (MT) of vegetables broken into: 29.7 MT of eggplants; 0.7 MT of "sitaw" or string beans, 350 MT of pechay; 280 MT of mustasa; 25 MT of squash; 80 MT of okra; and 20 MT of ampalaya.

"This project is a huge help for our Quezon city residents to provide them with an alternative source of income and source of affordable food supply," Castriciones said.

He said urban residents will be receiving support from the government for their agricultural needs such as machineries, tools, and farm inputs.

Technical knowledge will be provided by farmer-scientists and agrarian reform beneficiaries from DAR-Region 4A.

Castriciones said the second urban vegetable farming that will be conducted in Barangay Bagong Silangan follows the success of the project in St. John Bosco Parish in Tondo, Manila.

"We launched the first 'Buhay sa Gulay' on November 22 last year and in just over a month, we successfully harvested spinach, snow cabbage, kangkong, and mustard, among other vegetables on January 3 of this year," Castriciones said.

He said that after the project launch in Quezon City, the next project location will be in Caloocan City.

"We are positive that other cities in Metro Manila will replicate this project because this is a strategic solution to address issues of food production and sufficiency, and livelihood needs of Filipinos and the urban communities," Castriciones said.