Philippines: The booming story of urban agriculture
Her farm was also being proposed by the city to be an agri-tourism site for strawberry picking. This was fitting as her farm is also an urban agriculture model farm certified by the Agricultural Training Institute
Herald Express
Aug 26, 2023
Excerpt:
BAGUIO CITY – Urban gardening and farming became a trend in cities at the height of the pandemic. From vertical gardening to backyard farming, plantitos and plantitas emerged and became fascinated with planting. This also became their additional source of food and income, considering the lockdown that prevented the mass of people from going out of their communities.
Here in Baguio City, urban farming has always been a trend. Unbeknownst to most, there are many farmers in the city. Even with limited agricultural land being a highly urbanized area, many Baguio folk still took advantage of this.
This is the case for Rocklyn Yadis, a strawberry farmer from barangay Irisan, who has been involved in farming since childhood despite being born and raised as a city girl. She is currently serving in the Regional Agriculture and Fisheries Council–Cordillera as the regional subsectoral committee chairperson for High Value Crops.
Before she ventured into cultivating strawberries, she was already producing carrots, potatoes, cabbage and Chinese cabbage through crop rotation on her 2,000 sqm terrace farm. She allocates a few hundred square meters for each crop that she produces to utilize the limited area and production.
She took advantage of her location and added strawberries as she was gaining a higher income. Even though strawberries in the Cordillera are commonly found in La Trinidad, Benguet, which is the strawberry capital of the Philippines, strawberries can still be found in other parts of the region including the city as strawberries are best grown in high elevation.
