A TECHNO-DEMO livestock and vegetable farm
was launched by the Department of Agriculture at the Boys Town
complex in Marikina to help internees become more productive and
enable the institution to become food-sufficient and
income-generating.
Agriculture Secretary Ar-thur Yap said the
project will also help ease the internees’ reintegration into
their families and the community once they leave the facility.
The farm is an eight-hectare portion of the
23-hectare complex and is a joint project of the DA and Manila
Mayor Alfredo Lim. It will have a livestock, dairy, poultry,
fish pens, and a food terminal to allow residents to sell their
excess produce outside Boys’ Town.
The project has a total budget of P605,000.
Yap said it will also have a Gulayan ng Masa component which
uses backyard gardening to reduce hunger and malnutrition.
"We intend to make Boys’ Town a
food-sufficient community. But more than its economic
contributions, another significant aspect of the project is that
our agricultural activities in the complex will help enhance the
capability of its residents to engage in productive work, which
can prove helpful to them later on when they are ready to leave
Boys’ Town and return to their families," Yap said.
"If the turnout is favorable, we will
replicate the project in other areas," he added.
The complex separately houses 140 male wards
and 83 female wards 16 years old and below. It has expanded
since its opening in 1947 to include a foundling home for
children seven years old and below and a home for the aged.
Yap said several previous attempts to push agricultural
projects in the complex to augment its financial needs failed
due to lack of technical knowledge to sustain farm production.
This time, he said the DA will provide financial and technical
aid to enable its residents to sustain the project and turn it
into an income-generating tool. – Job T. Realubit
