Germany supports Philippine community gardens

**Don Boekelheide d*@yahoo.com**

Sun-Star newspaper/web network
The Philippines (Cagayan de Oro edition)
Monday, January 23, 2006

German gov't assures more funds for garden

THE government of Germany would fund more allotment
gardens in Cagayan de Oro City if the existing
projects are successfully sustained. 

Karin Jahr de Guerrero, development coordinator of the
German Embassy, made this assurance during the recent
inauguration of the city's fifth allotment garden in
San Isidro, Barangay Kauswagan. 

Guerrero's commitment was in response to the request
of Councilor Caesar Ian Acenas for the German
government to continue supporting the implementation
of these projects in more barangays in the city. 

Allotment gardens enable poor families to plant
vegetables in vacant and idle lots for their
consumption and sell them to increase their household
income. 

Acenas, who represented Mayor Vicente Emano during the
inauguration rites, said the City Council is now
preparing a legislation that would institutionalize
and set up policies for the establishment of allotment
gardens all over the city. 

He said a joint meeting of the committees on
environment, which he chairs and on agriculture
chaired by Councilor Annie Daba, has been scheduled to
tackle the proposed ordinance. 

The proposed legislation, he said, would include
incentives to lot owners who allow the use of their
lands for the project. 

He said this might be in the form of tax credits,
among others, to encourage them to be part of the
program for poverty alleviation. 

Aside from benefiting from incentives, Acenas said,
the lot owners would protect their properties against
squatters and have a major role in environment
protection. 

As this developed, he thanked the German government
for selecting the city as the project site. 

Acenas also expressed the city's gratefulness to Dr.
Robert Holmer, Periurban Vegetable Project director,
and other agencies for their partnership in the
endeavor to uplift the lives of residents. 

The five allotment gardens are implemented with the
technical assistance of the GTZ, in cooperation with
the City Local Environment and Natural Resources
Office, Agricultural Productivity Office, and the
barangay governments. 

Acenas said this technology is also being adopted in
Thailand, Indonesia, and Cambodia and the city is
privileged to have been chosen as a project area. 

He expressed optimism that with the joint efforts of
the agencies and the community, and the hard work of
the beneficiaries, the project could be sustained.

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