Villar distributes compost to aid home gardening projects

Aside from vegetable seeds, Sen. Cynthia Villar also distributed compost to help home gardeners grow healthy plants.

Buoyed by the popularity of planting projects while on quarantine, Villar, chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture and Food, initiated the distribution of compost, an organic material that can be added to soil to help plants grow.

"While we have already convinced people to start planting, we might as well teach them how to plant the organic way," Villar said.

Villar noted that the use of compost reduces the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides as it enriches and conditions the soil.

In Las Pinas and the Villar SIPAG farm schools, Villar's composting projects continue to operate. It involved the collection of kitchen and garden waste. In Las Pinas, about 70 tons of compost are produced and given out to farmers in nearby localities.

In addition to providing help to frontliners by donating food and protective equipments, Villar has included in her relief efforts the distribution of vegetable seeds to encourage home gardening and growing of own food.

The lady senator distributed packed seeds of tomato, eggplant, pumpkin, ampalaya, sweet pepper, hot pepper, corn, sitaw, and mungbean to 61 different barangays in Las Pinas, Cavite and Bulacan.

Villar said home gardening can be practiced by anybody in small patches of land, vacant lots or in containers, making it appealing to families living in urban areas.

The packets of seeds distributed by Villar also come with instructions on how to plant and care for the plants.

"We should take advantage of the quarantine, when we are all mandated to stay home and take care of ourselves, to stay productive by starting to plant seeds, grow food and harvest later on," Villar said.