farming project for city jail inmates

(This column appears in today's edition of the Leyte-Samar Daily Express)

Hi there! It’s another week. Let me start it off with the good news, at least for those from Calbayog. As per Presidential Proclamation No. 1624, October 16, 2008 has been declared as a special (non-working) day in Calbayog. Of course October 16, 2008 is the date when Calbayog City turns 60.

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Mayor Mel Sarmiento is currently in New York. He will be giving a presentation during a side event of the UN High-Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals.

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So, the U.S. economy is still the news. Why do I say that? Well, it’s still part of Jay Leno’s late-night jokes last week. Take this: “President Bush has finally come up with the solution on the current mess that hit the U.S. economy. And the process or solution starts in January of 2009. Yes, the day he leaves office.”

In a spiel in her 1999 New Year’s eve concert, Barbra Striesand said that if a dove flaps its wings in China, the wind currents shifts for thousands of miles across mountains and seas. It was her poetic way of saying that the events in the world are interconnected. That everything we do has a ripple effect, that we are all interconnected and that we have the responsibility to look out to one another.

So, what about that spiel? Well, that’s what came to mind upon hearing the line “pagbahing ng amerika, trangkaso ng Pilipinas” or something to that effect. Ah, corporate America. Why is it that if they have the good news, meaning the big companies earn big, not all outside America benefit; but when their stocks came tumbling down, everybody outside America tremble. Let’s take this: news had it that Goldman Sachs profits for this time of the year dipped by 70%, thus they earned only 810 million dollars (more or less). Can you imagine their earnings if it’s a normal year? No need to do the math.

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Now here’s an item which I believe deserves our attention. More that a week ago, the City Mayor led a program at the Calbayog City Jail. That program was the Farmers’ Field Day and FFS Graduation. It was a part of the Palayamanan Project. So, what about it? It has to do with farming for the inmates at the City Jail.

Let me give you details of that project which I got from the DA leaflet.

Palayamanan involves the use of indigenous knowledge and research-generated technologies and farming systems adaptable to the local conditions which are combined to increase productivity, profitability and enhance sustainability of the farm. This concept makes use of available farm resources and highlights the interconnectivity between each resource and by-product in the various technology components of the farming system.

With rice as a base crop, other crops, aquaculture, livestock, pomology, biomass recovery system and other farming ventures are integrated to maximize the use of local resources.

The “An Palayamanan San Siyudad Sa Calbayog” Project is located in Sitio Tomalon, Brgy. Gadgaran, Calbayog City. The project is implemented through the collaborative efforts of PhilRice, DA-RFU 8, the City Government of Calbayog and the Bureau if Jail Management and Penology (BJMP). It started with pre-implementation meeting with the stakeholders on September 2007 and followed by the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) on November 2007. Relevant information was gathered from the farmers in the nearby barangays as well as from the inmates of the City Jail.

The technology on hybrid rice production was first introduced thru season-long Farmers’ Field School on December 2007 with fifteen (15) participants: ten (10) inmates and five (5) farmers.In addition to rice, tilapia was cultures with 15,000 tilapia fingerlings stocked in the 600 sq. m. pond. Also the 300 sq. m. area was planted with assorted vegetables. Eight Hundred (800) hills of eggplant and a 2,500 sq. m. rice area outside the jail was also planted on and was managed by the farmer participants.

A project was started with twenty-two (22) heads of chicken. This was done in collaboration with the GMA Livestock Program.A Season-long Farmers’ Field School on vegetable production is on-going involving twenty-five (25) participants: twenty (20) inmates and five (5) farmers.Other activities in line are:

1. Season-long Farmers’ Field School on Tilapia Culture in collaboration with the BFAR.
2. Excavation of the SWIP project and proposed hatchery for tilapia breeder stock. The area in consideration is 1,500 sq. m.
3. Establishment of farm house outside the city jail.
4. Contouring of the hillside to be planted with fruit trees and pineapple.

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Wedding Bells. Leo Aler (of Begaho, Oquendo) and Chistine Escobar (of Matobato) will get married tomorrow. The Wedding Mass will be held at the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral. Reception will follow at the Cardinal Rosales Hall of the Centennial Pastoral Center.

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This is it for now. Have a nice week everyone! Ciao!