Stakeholders from Palawan visited Laguna province for benchmarking on Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture's (SEARCA) school and community gardens initiatives, also known as the School-Plus-Home Garden Program (S+HGP).
SEARCA Director Glenn Gregorio said the SEARCA-organized weeklong study visit from March 27 to 31, 2023 for the key stakeholders of Busuanga Island, Palawan was in recognition of the need for a sustainable program to foster strong partnerships among various stakeholders and develop policies that will sustain school and community gardens initiatives.
Gregorio said the activity aimed to provide technical assistance to key partners from the Department of Education (DepEd) Division of Palawan and local government units from Busuanga and Coron on policy development that will contribute to the sustainability of the center's S+HGP.
"The activity specifically aims to share lessons learned and experiences among key stakeholders from Laguna pilot schools and municipalities in implementing S+HGP as an intervention that complements DepEd programs on school-based feeding and school vegetable gardening," he said.
The event which targeted to recommend strategic parameters in crafting local ordinances and budget allocations for S+HGP in their respective localities gathered together DepEd Palawan, principals and school heads from S+HGP partner schools in Busuanga, Coron Inland, and Coron Coastal districts.
Key officers from Sangguniang Bayan Committees on Education and Agriculture of LGUs of Busuanga and Coron also joined the study visit to learn the best practices from S+HGP partner schools and municipalities in Santa Cruz, Pila and Cavinti, Laguna.
The event also featured key agricultural technologies that are essential in establishing school gardens as experiential learning laboratories.
It also included a briefing and tour around the Edible Landscaping Demonstration Garden and the Organic Agriculture Research and Development Center of the University of the Philippines Los Baños.
Gregorio noted that through this benchmarking initiative, SEARCA aims to strengthen and sustain the S+HGP programs in schools and communities of Laguna and Palawan that will serve as models for scaling out the program to other localities in the Philippines and other countries in Southeast Asia.
