HAPAG Project: A Potential Solution to Malnutrition

HAPAG Project: A Potential Solution to Malnutrition

I was at a regular meeting of our Municipal Nutrition Committee last week when something struck me while listening to the accomplishments of those implementing the national government's so-called Halina't Magtanim ng Prutas at Gulay (HAPAG) project on one hand and those implementing anti-malnutrition measures on the other hand. (To my surprise, MNC is the only meeting I truly enjoy next to meetings on history, culture, and arts; the rest are highly stressful ha-ha.)

It may sound so simplistic or even obvious, but I thought the solution to the problem of stunting nationwide due to malnutrition is within reach: the answer lies in the barangay community vegetable gardening projects, which in our LGU's case have always been there ever since I joined local government in 2016.

"Who gets to eat the produce of HAPAG?," I asked. "Why don't we use HAPAG precisely to target kids with malnutrition problems?"

"Better yet, how about turning HAPAG not just a community fruit tree and vegetable patch but as a greenhouse to make it more productive?" I said.

Soon after, I got to learn the problems that have been encountered in the past with this kind of project:

1. First is that it is seasonal. When summer comes, the soil dries up and can no longer sustain the plants. Besides, so many food plants have a seasonal nature.

2. Another problem is reportedly the availability of land. Our town may have a very wide arable land, but it doesn't mean all barangays have readily available public lands to till.

3. The third problem is sustainability in terms of the volunteers willing to keep the patch alive. What if a new barangay captain and council takes over? Can they be depended upon to get on with the project?

Well, I thought, if there's a will, there's a way. Among the solutions broached by MNC members are the following, all commonsensical and sensible: Hydroponics technology can solve the problem of seasonality. And we can always plant evergreens, right, especially in the case of fruit-bearing trees?

Water is obviously a big problem, so if we can find a way of saving rainwater from heavy downpours, that would be great. How about making ponds filled with fish as catchment area to eliminate the risk of malaria and dengue from breeding mosquitoes while we save water for irrigation purposes?

If land is a problem, then the vicinity of the barangay hall can be the one turned into a vegetable garden, provided it is suitable to agriculture and composting at the same time. Vertical gardening and urban gardening techniques may be resorted to, if the barangay really lacks space. As per HAPAG guidelines, this even encourages recycling of plastic containers routinely burned or thrown away as trash.

Next, the whole project can be institutionalized through an ordinance, to force local leaders to follow through despite their political leanings and whatever political season it may be. As for sourcing volunteers or workers, maybe we can use part of the mandatory budget for nutrition as salary--we might thus be even creating new jobs.

I am reminded of another solution offered in the past inspired by the Taiwanese experience: tax penalties for home grounds that are non-productive. I am not sure if this will work for tax-phobic residents here. Maybe tax incentives will.

I said I am scandalized, even pissed off, that there is even a malnutrition problem. Given that we are an agricultural country, with a countryside blessed with so much greenery all year round, there shouldn't be a malnourished child in our midst at all!

I know, I know, malnutrition in our case is caused by socioeconomic poverty--a complicated affair of low wages; lack of knowledge, education, and skills; unemployment; government budgeting priorities; culinary practices; and maybe some medical issues thrown in for good measure.

But I can't help but see this vision of a bright and beautiful barangay garden and orchard--backed up by a barangay nursery--that is turned into a viable livelihood run by salaried personnel, if not members of the target households, those who stand to benefit the most.

Locals need not even buy seeds or seedlings. They just have to save all those seeds and stalk they throw away without much thought every time they cook their next meal or have their snack of fruits.

What are those? I, for one, can easily answer because my household grows all sorts of vegetables all year round just from our kitchen refuse. We don't even have to buy the seeds for tomatoes, ampalaya, okra, alugbati, kangkong, gabi, camote, saluyot, and talilong, which are the easiest to grow, followed by eggplant and sili, which are quite delicate (maselan and maarte) and have certain requirements. If the land patch is adequate enough for creepers, one can easily grow sitaw (for stringbeans and the shoots), munggo, kalabasa, upo, patola, sigarilyas, patani, kundol.... The favored pinakbet mix of locals can be completed once they are successful in growing the aromatics as well: onion, garlic, ginger, siling haba. (I am craving ChowKing-style steamed kangkong with crispy-fried garlic and sesame oil right now.)

They say the fastest growing among local vegetables must be the pechay, but this requires well-prepared and appropriate soil mix, organic fertilizer, and daily care.

We might include in the garden some often-used kitchen herbs and medicinal plants: pandan, tanglad, kutchay, pancit-pancitan, oregano, etc. At this point, I am reminded once again that there are a lot of plants in our midst that we dismiss as inedible but are actually edible and nutritious: portulaca and other herbs scoffed upon as mere grass or weeds fit only for pigs.

Fruit-bearing trees, on the other hand, require much time for maturity--we might be talking about years. But I believe there are pruning and marcotting techniques to get around this problem. Imagine a barangay orchard with the following trees and other plant types that bear fruits free for the picking by those in need at any time of the year (in case of perennials): banana varieties, malunggay, papaya, atis (an especially prolific fruit tree), mulberry (another prolific fruit-bearer), mango, calamansi, santol, langka, kamansi, cabuyao, suha, kamias, guava, coconut, kasuy, tamarind, duhat, aratiles, sineguelas, camachile, dragonfruit, passionfruit, avocado, makopa, mabolo, caramay, balimbing, himbabao, etc. During so many past mango seasons, I routinely shovel ripe mangoes into sacks as trash, for weeks on end, ready for the garbage truck, to the ESWMO staff's chagrin.

While we are at it, we might as well even extend this project by adding chicken coops, pigpens, grazing fields, and fishponds to supply eggs, milk, and meat.

Since this project is not operated on economies of scale, it can't be seen as competitors of large-scale farmers that supply public markets--just a community-based food pantry of sorts for those on a tight budget.

HAPAG harks back to other Marcosian projects such as 'Green Revolution' and 'Sariling Sikap,' so the idea is hardly new. The thing is, as desert-dwelling Middle Easterners say, we in the Philippines "live in paradise." There should be no hunger or malnutrition in the garden of Eden. We just have to formulate the right IRR (implementing rules and regulations) to operate it.

(photos: Balon Bayambang FB page)