TACLOBAN CITY- The provincial government of Leyte will be launching a pilot farming project that will save farmers from using a wide area of land in cultivating crops.
Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla revealed this saying that the project uses hydroponics farming technique which they will implement in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology,
Atenio De Manila, Arizona State University, and the Eastern Visayas State University (EVSU).
Compared with the traditional gardening, hydroponics is a concept of using less soil, less space, and less water, and proved to have several advantages over solid gardening with a growth rate of 30-50 percent faster, and yield of plants is also greater.
Because hydroponics also uses less soil, it get rid of soil-borne diseases and pests that normally affects the plants.
“The good thing about this project is because we are using container vans. During times of natural calamities and disasters like typhoon, we can transfer the vans to safer place where the typhoon will not directly hit,”Petilla said.
Two container vans are to be used in the pilot testing of hydroponics farming where one is going to be place inside the EVSU-Main campus while the other one is at the La Granja De Reyna, a Leyte Economic beneficiary, based here in the city.
The two container vans are provided by the provincial government while the technical aspect of the program are to be provided by its partners.
“Initially, they will try growing lettuce, then eventually they will try other crops like tomatoes, (and) bell pepper,”Petilla said.
Other plants that can be grown using hydroponics includes butter crunch, spinach, herbs like basil and mint, strawberries, cucumber and flowers like marigold.
The governor said that they are targeting to launch the program before the year is over or once the construction of the hydroponic system inside the container vans are finished.
“Our main goal here is to have agricultural resiliency for our farmers livelihood. Even a strong typhoon hits our province, our farmers will immediately resume their livelihood because their crops are protected. They can plant their crops whole year round,” Petilla said. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
