Some barangays in Pasig City showcased their respective bountiful urban gardens on Tuesday, Jan. 24, to support the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)’s “Halina't Magtanim ng Prutas at Gulay (HAPAG) sa Barangay" project.

The DILG formally launched the HAPAG sa Barangay project at Barangay Holy Spirit, Quezon City on Tuesday. It was led by Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos, along with Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) General Manager Undersecretary Procopio Lipana and other government officials and barangay leaders.

DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2023-001 states that the HAPAG sa Barangay project aims to “strengthen the capacities of barangays towards sustainable agriculture initiatives,” through the “intensification and fostering of agricultural activities such as barangay community gardening.”

The project seeks to address food scarcity and food security. It encourages households and communities to produce fresh, healthy and affordable fruits and vegetables from their backyards and spaces or in vacant areas in their barangays.

On their social media page, Barangay Santolan shared their community garden, which was set up as a venue for the community to freely plant and acquire nutritional food for every Santaleno family.

To entice and educate visitors to the area, the caretakers of the garden also posted a trivia board at the site, displaying the scientific names of the plants, vegetables, and fruits planted in the garden, as well as a trivia and facts section.

The garden is currently planting talong (eggplant), kamatis (tomatoes), petchay (Chinese cabbage), spinach, saluyot (jute leaves), gabi (taro), ampalaya (bitter gourd), bayabas (guava), okra, banaba, pipino (cucumber), labanos (radish), and mustasa (mustard greens).

Herbal plants such as insulin, serpentina, dahong maria, and oregano are also being grown in the garden.

Meanwhile, Barangay Dela Paz also flaunted their urban organic garden which grows talong, basil, upo (bottle gourd), labanos, sili labuyo (small chili peppers), and amplaya.

The garden in Barangay Dela Paz is located at Aguho Street in Octagon Village.

The barangay previously won the Champion title of Greenest Barangay for their urban garden and greenspaces at the Cleanest and Greenest Barangay Awards in 2022, conferred by the city government.

Barangay San Antonio has its own urban garden that previously won the Sustainable Urban Gardening Contest in 2021.

As the business center of the city, the barangay is aiming to convert more areas in their vicinity into green spaces.

Pasig City is home to many urban community gardens that have long been launched by the initiatives of barangays, with support from the local government.

Among them is the urban vegetable garden opened at the Marikina Riverside Boulevard in Barangay Ugong, made in coordination with the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO), the urban hydroponics garden in Barangay Pinagbuhatan, and the urban garden set up within the Pasig Rainforest Park.

The Pasig City Nutrition Committee also implemented the “Gulayan sa Bakuran ni Nanay” in December 2022 to help indigent families consume nutritious food, and serve as a form of productive leisure activity and livelihood. Around 1,000 nutritionally-at-risk and undernourished families participated in the program.