Albay village puts up ‘gulayan’ farm

CAMALIG, Albay --- The barangay council of Salugan here has put up a “gulayan” farm in a seven hectare lot to provide residents with assorted vegetables to ensure their balance nutrition amidst the existence of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

To recall, village chief Shiela “Kap Shie” Dino provided children, pregnant and lactating women including senior citizens regular feeding for the past two months to fight malnutrition in Barangay Salugan, when Albay province was placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

Salugan’s vegetable farm owned by the family of Dino is planted with a variety of vegetables plants such as: lettuce; eggplants, pechay; kangkong; tomatoes; ampalaya; string beans; chilli; okra; peanuts; sweet corn; dragon fruit, among others.

Residents can get their free vegetables in the farm for their daily consumption.

During the entire duration of ECQ in the province, Dino led barangay officials in a thrice a week feeding program in a bid to fight malnutrition specifically among children, pregnant and lactating women including senior citizens.

Salugan has: 147 children aged 2 to 5 years old; 170 senior citizens; 42 Persons With Disability (PWD); 8 pregnant women; and 55 lactating mothers.

An agricultural village, it has a total population of 2,236 consisting of 618 families.

Dino said that the feeding program dubbed as “Kauswagan Pantawid Feeding Program” was delivered to resident through house-to-house and zone-to-zone with social distancing properly observed.

“We commit to serve not to be served. We are conducting feeding program 3x a week to ensure the good nutritional status of the children while in lockdown,” she said.

The feeding program is the personal advocacy of Dino. A businesswoman before entering local politics, Dino said she spent personal money as the council have no enough funds considering the food ration given to the residents since March 20 to May 15.

“We opted to use our private land to be the ‘gulayan’ plantation during the ECQ so we can provide free vegetables to our residents aside from fighting the boredom. With our ‘gulayan sa barangay’, the people can have vegetables on their table,” Dino said.

Salugan is the sole village in Albay that has a seven hectares vegetable farm.

Albay Gov. Al Francis Bichara is providing free vegetable seeds to Albayanos so they can have their backyard gardens to grow vegetables during the community quarantine period.

A similar program was done by Rep. Fernando “Didi” Cabredo in the 3rd District of the province.