'Bayan-anihan' soft launch set for next week

MANILA, Philippines — Bayan-anihan, a joint program of the Department of Agriculture and the private-sector-led Gawad Kalinga (GK) movement, will be soft launched this week with the aim of establishing backyard vegetable farms in 98 sites in Luzon as part of the common goals of ensuring food security and generating jobs for hunger-prone families. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and Tony Meloto, who heads GK Community Development Inc, will lead the launching of the pro-poor project at the GK site in Nuestra Señora de Soledad Village in Barangay Tabon in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. Director Rene Rafael Espino of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani-High-Value Commercial Crops (GMA-HVCC) said the opening of the Nueva Ecija site was among the many activities to be simultaneously held in 98 GK sites all over Luzon . Espino said the ceremony, dubbed the “Bayan-anihan Sabayang Pagtatanim" in Nueva Ecija, would kick off with a Goodbye Gutom Rally led by Meloto, followed by the Call to Plant by Yap . During the event, vegetable seedlings will be turned over by Yap and Meloto to representatives of the beneficiary communities of the Globe Farm in San Isidro. Globe Telecom, one of the country’s leading telecommunications companies, has committed to adopt 35 farms under this project, according to Espino. Joining Yap and Meloto in the soft launch are Globe community relations head Jeffrey Tarayao, Bayan-anihan Foundation president John Cruz;, and Mayor Sonia Lorenzo of the municipality of San Isidro . The ceremony will be followed by a community planting inside the farm. Yap said the Bayan-anihan project will be implemented in communities situated near GK’s hub of operations in the country’s poorest provinces, with a minimum of 30 families per site. The project in the initial 115 sites located in Metro Manila, Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), Mimaropa (Mindoro Oriental and Occidental, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) and Bicol provinces will start this month. Bayan-Anihan hopes to accomplish to cover a total of 500 sites all over the country in 2009, while another 2,000 farms are targeted for 2010 and 2011. The GK, which is best known for building houses for the poor, has partnered with other government agencies, including the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) on its various programs. Yap, who has been an active participant in GK projects since he was administrator of the National Food Authority in 2002, said the support of private sector groups such as Gawad Kalinga would be crucial in helping government achieve its goal of providing food on the table of every Filipino family. - D'jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV