The Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office 1’s satellite station located at Pangasinan Research and Experiment Center (PREC), Sual, Pangasinan headed by station manager – Dr. Mary Jane Alcedo distributed assorted seeds including; OPV seeds, 15 seedling trays of eggplant and tomatoes and 3 bags of vermicompost to the Parayao National High School Senior High School students on June 3, 2020 to enhance support for the Urban Agriculture Program of DA.

According to Mr. Jean Yves Bravo – OIC Head, Senior High School, the goal of the project is to encourage parents to support their children in establishing their own backyard container garden.

“Backyard container gardening is the best way to inculcate in the young minds of these students the value of food production that can be started in their homes. This project can be easily accomplished even in a limited space and time,” Mr. Bravo said. With this support of DA to the school, future collaborative activities in order to enhance the appreciation of senior highschool students on agricuture were also discussed by Dr. Alcedo with Mr. Bravo during the seed distribution. The seedlings received by the school will also be used to establish the container garden of the school.

The DA-RFO I through Regional Executive Director Lucrecio R. Alviar Jr., has strengthened the capacity of the stations to produce various vegetable seeds/seedlings especially during the Enhanced Community Quarantine to encourage more individuals to join the Plant Plant Plant Program of DA. Through the free vegetables distributed, individuals and families are able to experience reaping the benefits of growing their own food.

To date the station has already distributed a total of 469 packs of assorted opv vegetable seeds (tomato, egg plant, hot pepper, okra, cowpea, mungbean, pole sitao, squash & upo) and a total of 136.5 assorted vegetable seedlings.##