Philippines: In poverty-stricken Payatas, 200 women bank on urban farming as hunger worsens
Now, the women are already producing papaya, kamote, malunggay, eggplant, and other crops that not only nourish the community but also provide them with extra income.
by Vina Medenilla
Manilla Bulletin
Oct 4, 2022
Excerpt:
Long-standing threats to the survival of many Filipino families include poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. Hunger and unemployment rates escalated during the pandemic, leaving more and more Filipinos hungry and broke.
In Payatas, Quezon City, 200 women came together to build and sustain an urban garden that now provides nutritious food to their community in the face of the pandemic’s health risks.
AGREA, a woman-led social enterprise, understands the needs of the locals and is one with the Payatas women in curbing urban hunger.
In the midst of the pandemic, AGREA, together with Puso ng Ama Foundation, donated different kinds of vegetables to Payatas communities. Unfortunately, donations of fresh produce started to run short and donor fatigue set in. That’s when they thought of a community garden as a key to food sustainability. They called it the Urban Agriculture Program.
Alongside the establishment of the garden is the creation of the Payatas Women Food Producers Association, a group of 200 women who have received farming training from AGREA.
AGREA founding farmer and president Cherrie Atilano is a witness to how food-insecure Payatas is during site visits. There’s another problem she discovered there: domestic violence. Cases of domestic violence among women are particularly high amid the pandemic and women in Payatas suffer from this, too.
Atilano shared that two mothers committed suicide due to domestic violence. This is the main reason AGREA places such a strong focus on women’s empowerment.
