Food Security through Hydroponics: The Modern Backyard Planting

Details: Category: Region 9; Published: 17 March 2021

RO9 Hydroponics Through the years hunger has been one of the concerns of the government and it alarms the country as it has an impact on the overall welfare and the future of our country. There were programs implemented to alleviate the hunger status in the country but due to the entrant of COVID-19 in the Philippines, food insecurity has been recorded to spike. This current pandemic has dragged us to be more food insecure from 8.8% pre-pandemic to 16% during the pandemic as stated by Cabinet Secretary Nograles (the chair of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Zero Hunger). Many of us strive to provide food on the table for our families; safe water and food are the basic necessities to survive. In times of pandemic, we need food for nutrients that boost our immune system to combat the virus.

The local government units continue to support and implement the anti-hunger mitigating programs in the country and stringently formulates new policies to eradicate hunger. With this, President Duterte signed an Executive Order No. 101 creating Inter-Agency Task Force Zero Hunger (IATF-ZH) to ensure that government policies, initiatives and projects on attaining zero hunger shall be coordinated, responsive and effective.

On a micro level as part of the community, households are encouraged to do backyard gardening to help in the production of vegetables in the family household. In modern times, space is one of the concerns that restrict households to do backyard gardening. Thus, hydroponics gardening is very much recommended as this grows vegetable faster up to 30-50% (according to Greentrees Hydroponics) in a less demand for space. Several measures should be followed to effectively grow vegetables from hydroponics; hydroponics fertilizer and/or nutrient solution is needed and we also need a candle or lantern wick to move nutrients into the root system. We can also use the ebb and flow system wherein we use a pump that works as the flood and drain which carries the nutrients to the plants.

The Department of Agriculture currently supports hydroponics farming in the mass production of vegetables as they conduct lectures and trainings to 250 farmers and introduce the basic concept of hydroponics and how it works. All together we can work to fight hunger and secure our nutritional needs not just today but also our future and the next generations to come.

NO II Joanna Marie E. Baltazar

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