ZHANDER CAYABYAB INTROSPIEL: During the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, some Filipinos have ventured into planting ornamental plants. This is the reason why they were dubbed as “plantitos” and “plantitas” (word play of plant and uncle/aunt). Meanwhile, some have ventured into urban gardening. Good day folks! I am your host, Mr. Zhander Cayabyab. Let’s listen to these success stories of vegetable gardening, aquaculture, and cultivating food in urban areas. This is “Agri @ Home” The RMN DZXL 558 Special Report!
LETSUGAS NG PAYATAS (Lettuce of Payatas)
ZHANDER VO: Who would have thought that in the midst of the now closed Payatas dumpsite in Quezon City, a luxuriant lettuce farm would emerge?
RICARDO: Hi, I am Ricardo Artillero, and I own this mini greenhouse in our rooftop.
ZHANDER VO: Ricardo Artillero Junior, much better known in their community as Utoy, started a mini lettuce plantation in their house in 2022. He uses hydroponics, a technique of growing plants using water instead of soil.
ZHANDER: So that’s water underneath the lettuce?
RICARDO: Yes, that’s water and not soil.
ZHANDER: Can we see what’s inside? (gets some lettuce)
RICARDO: I put water inside the styrofoam containers.
ZHANDER VO: He learned the hydroponics technique through watching videos on YouTube.
RICARDO: I am fond of watching videos online, and then I saw some hydroponics tutorials on social media.
ZHANDER VO: When he was just starting in this hobby, he gathered some scrap styrofoam tuna boxes from the wet market.
RICARDO: I sell fish in the market. When I wanted to start hydroponics, I just collected some scrap styrofoam boxes that were already thrown away. I had no budget back then. What I did first was the Kratky method (stagnant water inside the boxes where the plants are suspended).
ZHANDER VO: Ricardo was doing D.I.Y. or “do it yourself” method back then. He punched holes on the styrofoam lids to create grow beds where the vegetables are to be suspended. He plants the lettuce seedlings on each plastic cup. He recalls having less than one thousand pesos (PHP 1,000) as his first capital.
RICARDO: I bought the seeds, nutrient solution, and coco peat online. I did not spend on the styrofoam boxes as they were from the trash bins. Then I created the grow beds from scrap.
ZHANDER VO: When he was able to successfully grow the first batches of lettuce, Ricardo gathered up some money to expand his greenhouse. He bought some plastic pipes and a water pump that would circulate the nutrient-filled solution. This is called the NFT or Nutrient Film Technique. Compared to the Kratky method, which uses stagnant water, the water in N.F.T. recirculates through the pipes.
ZHANDER: You did this set-up alone?
RICARDO: Yes, I was the one who built this NFT.
ZHANDER: You used PVC (polyvinyl chloride) pipes.
RICARDO: For the NFT, we usually use tubular pipes.
ZHANDER VO: Ricardo says that setting up a hydroponics garden is not that easy especially for starters.
RICARDO: I just used scrap ultraviolet plastic sheets as roofing for my greenhouse. There were times that these were destroyed by strong typhoons. Also, when I was just starting, all the plants have withered and died. I needed to learn more about hydroponics, so I watched as many YouTube tutorials as possible. From then on, I learned from my mistakes and eventually got back successfully.
ZHANDER VO: A single harvest takes more than a month, until it’s time to harvest and sell the vegetables.
RICARDO: Last week I was able to sell the lettuce. I normally get forty pesos (PHP 40.00) per head.
MONTAGE: (Vlog 1) What’s up, hydroponics friends! I will teach you how to germinate seeds. (Vlog 2) Good morning, I’m here again. (Vlog 3) What’s up guys?
ZHANDER VO: The good news is Ricardo is now vlogging on Facebook and YouTube through his channel dubbed as “Bakuran ni Utoy” (Utoy’s Garden) to teach netizens who want to learn and prosper in hydroponics like him.
RICARDO: This is my advice for those who want to try hydroponics. You will experience failure; it’s but normal for beginners. Just keep moving forward; try to learn the right steps. Just focus on your goal. Eventually you will become successful in this endeavor.
TRANSITION
ZHANDER VO: Mr. Jose Diego Roxas, an agriculturist and currently the spokesperson of the Department of Agriculture – Bureau of Plant Industry, started doing hydroponics as a student.
JOSE ROXAS: Probably I got so frustrated when I plant vegetables on soil. Plants become stunted. I started with SNAP (Simple Nutrient Addition Program) hydroponics, which is a technology that we use in the University of the Philippines Los Baños. I started planting lettuce, as we would always recommend. I also tried planting pechay (Chinese cabbage), then tomatoes. Hydroponics has long been practiced around the world. It becomes a bit popular as more and more Filipinos are doing it.
ZHANDER VO: The Department of Agriculture offers programs for those who want to venture into hydroponics.
JOSE ROXAS: We have controlled environment agriculture in the Department of Agriculture office. Once in a while, we open this to the general public so they could see and learn how controlled environment agriculture works.
TRANSITION
ZHANDER VO: Even jails and correctional facilities in the Philippines are establishing hydroponics gardens to teach persons deprived of liberty (PDL) how to grow vegetables using the hydroponics system. The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) has built hydroponics gardens and conducted seminars in Makati City Jail, Taguig City Jail, Cagayan De Oro City Jail, Libmanan District Jail in Camarines Sur, to name a few.
TRANSITION
ZHANDER VO: Some high school students in Navotas National High School are busy planting seeds for their hydroponics garden. Students are being taught how to grow vegetables using this method.
TRANSITION
ZHANDER VO: When the Taal Volcano erupted last June 2023, Fely Dinglasan, a resident of Batangas, said that the vegetables in her hydroponics garden were destroyed by volcanic ashes. In her Facebook post, Fely apologized to her customers as she cannot deliver vegetables on time for she needs to replenish first the destroyed lettuce. It will take her at least a month to regrow what was lost, as long as the Taal Volcano will stay calm.
TRANSITION
ALBERT: In the nipa hut, though small, the vegetation there is varied (an excerpt from the folk song “Bahay kubo, kahit munti. Ang halaman doon ay sari-sari”)
ZHANDER VO: Climate Change Commission (CCC) Commissioner Albert dela Cruz encourages the general public and government employees as well to practice and promote edible gardening.
ALBERT: We already have a resolution that discourages the planting of ornamental plants in government offices. As much as possible, we should practice edible planting. Yes, your roses are beautiful, but don’t ask for a papaya from me if you’re cooking chicken stew.
ZHANDER VO: Dela Cruz says that though flowering plants are beautiful, it’s better to plant vegetables that people could eat.
ALBERT: Yes, ornamental flowers are blatantly mesmerizing to the eyes. But vegetables like squash and sponge gourd have flowers too that you could eat. Aside from that, you could eat their fruits. These are edible materials for food security.
2-IN-1 GULAYAN + PALAISDAAN
(2-IN-1 VEGETABLE GARDEN PLUS FISH POND)
ZHANDER VO: The residents of Alpas Housing Site in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan are seemingly preoccupied in building their aquaponics system. Aquaponics is an urban agriculture technique quite similar to hydroponics, but it also involves aquaculture. This is a 2-in-1 set-up: a vegetable garden merged with a fish pond.
DR. CORONADO: Hello, I’m Dr. Armin S. Coronado…
ZHANDER VO: Dr. Armin Coronado, the Director of the Research Institute for Science and Technology of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, says their group saw the need to build additional sources of food and income for the residents of Alpas Housing Site. Residents here are informal settler families that were relocated in Bulacan. This is the reason why they built an aquaponics set-up here in partnership with the Research Institute for Human and Social Development, which is also under PUP’s Office of the Vice President for Research, Extension, Planning, and Development. The non-governmental organization (NGO) Dana Asia funded the aquaponics project.
DR. CORONADO: Aquaponics is an integrated fish and plant farming. This means that in this system or technology, we can grow and harvest two types of agricultural produce—one is fish, and the other one is vegetable.
ZHANDER VO: Dr. Coronado and his group have been going back and forth to Alpas Housing Site to oversee the aquaponics training of the residents. This aims to provide informal settler families sustainable development by giving them food and livelihood through urban agriculture.
DR. CORONADO: In the aquaponics system, we have recirculating water flow. As you can see, at the bottom tank we keep the fish here. The fish produce waste materials through their feces. These waste materials are to be converted to nitrate through the nitrogen-fixing bacteria that we put in the filter. The dirty water passes through the filter, and the nitrogen-fixing bacteria shall transform nitrogen and ammonia to nitrates. These nitrates shall pass through the water tubes leading to the vegetable grow beds on top. These will now be the nutrients that our vegetables will absorb for them to grow abundantly.
ZHANDER VO: Margarita Hernandez, one of the beneficiaries, says that aside from having a new pastime, they now have a source of additional income.
MARGARITA: It feels like having a baby that we need to nurture. When these fish and vegetables grow, we can sell them in the market.
ZHANDER VO: Girlyn Obenza, chairwoman of the residents’ cooperative, says that their members are excited to harvest the agricultural produce.
GIRLYN: Who would’ve thought that we would own something like this? I actually boast about this aquaponics to the other cooperatives here. I am very grateful because someday, these will add income to our members.
ZHANDER VO: Melanie Fernando and Gloria Quijan also expressed their excitement in gathering and selling fish and vegetables.
GLORIA: For the residents here who don’t have anything to eat, we can give them some. Thanks to the donors, we now have fish and vegetables to tend to.
MELANIE: No, we won’t give them away for free! We can sell them at a lower price.
GLORIA: Yes, indeed. But I suggest that during our first harvest, we can give them away for free. I believe that we should distribute the first harvest for free so that our next produce would be more bountiful.
ZHANDER VO: The Polytechnic University of the Philippines is now studying on what other types of vegetables and fish that they could put in the aquaculture system. They are also planning to set up more aquaponics systems in various adopted villages of the university.
ZHANDER VO: Bureau of Plant Industry spokesperson Mr. Jose Diego Roxas says that aquaponics is more challenging than hydroponics because of the fish and plant elements.
JOSE ROXAS: The aquaponics system has some sets of complications, if I may call them as such. It has a fish component. You have to research and learn how to grow fish, and at the same time, you need to know how to grow vegetables. It’s a bit challenging than hydroponics.
ZHANDER VO: According to the Department of Agriculture, having hydroponics and aquaponics at home may not be able to supply food source on a national level because growing fish and vegetables through these is not large-scale. However, hydroponics and aquaponics may help supplement food source to households or even barangays or villages.
JOSE ROXAS: Hydroponics and aquaponics are not a total replacement to the local agricultural production. These are augmentative. This means that these may help suffice food source in certain areas. We at the Department of Agriculture always advocate for production as a whole. We encourage having edible gardens so that there’d be supply of food particularly vegetables on a household level.
KAY BUTI NG KABUTE
(THE GOODNESS OF MUSHROOMS)
ZHANDER VO: In San Mateo, Rizal, a resident named Albert Estabillo was able to grow a mushroom farm in their garage.
ALBERT: Hi, I am Albert F. Estabillo, and I am the owner of the Randjohn Mushroom Farm.
ZHANDER VO: Albert started spawning mushrooms in their backyard in 2015.
ALBERT: I started with a few fruiting bags. Then I attended some seminars, and was able to establish a mushroom farm.
ZHANDER VO: A workmate encouraged him to pursue this business.
ALBERT: Our doctor informed me about a mushroom growing seminar and asked me if I wanted to attend.
ZHANDER VO: Albert is a registered nurse by profession. He meticulously keeps the mushroom spawns sterile so as not to contaminate production.
ALBERT: (Demonstrates how to generate mushrooms) We need to get a tissue sample from a fresh mushroom. We will cut this mushroom in half, and from the center we will get a small tissue. We will place that tissue to a medium, like seeds. And from there we could produce the filial zero or F0, also called mother culture.
ZHANDER VO: He uses sorghum seeds as media to spawn the mushrooms.
ALBERT: I do the tissue culture here in this room. Earlier we got tissue samples from a fresh mushroom, right? We will place those tissues in this bottle, and then it will become filial zero. We also call this the mother spawn. And from that mother spawn, we can generate more and more. I can produce 30 bottles from one mother spawn.
ZHANDER VO: This is the RandJohn Mushroom Farm—named after his two brothers, Randy and John.
ZHANDER: (Introduces Randy, Albert’s brother) I have with me is Sir Randy, and he will teach us how to assemble a mushroom fruiting bag.
RANDY FERRER: (Demonstrates how to make a fruiting bag) This mixture has four components—sawdust, rice bran, lime, and sugar.
ZHANDER: We have to fill this plastic bag with that substrate.
RANDY: Yes, and it should be compact.
ZHANDER: So I have to use this bottle to compress the substrate?
RANDY: Yes, and after filling that up, we shall place a ring which will serve as the opening of the plastic bag.
ZHANDER: After placing that ring…
RANDY: We will place cotton or cloth ball at the opening so that the mycelium could breathe. The mushroom will grow here.
ZHANDER: After assembling this fruiting bag, I can proudly say that I can start a mushroom business. But I think it’s best to just buy ready-made fruiting bags to spare me from that effort! (laughs)
RANDY: These fruiting bags are now ready for steaming. We will steam them for ten (10) hours.
ZHANDER: Ten hours long?
RANDY: Yes, we will steam these bags for ten hours to remove all contaminants and bacteria to ensure that our mushrooms will grow.
ZHANDER VO: When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the country, some mushroom growers discontinued their business. But Albert says he is thankful because despite the pandemic, some Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) including seafarers still bought spawns from him. There were also a few who ventured into mushroom farming inside their homes.
ALBERT: Since we are living in Metro Manila, we don’t have large garden lots. Some of those who bought from us placed the fruiting bags in hallways and apartments. I instructed them to put wet cloths around the fruiting bags to keep the mushroom petals moist. There were some who placed the fruiting bags beside their kitchen sink, around 20 bags. Now, they are already harvesting the mushrooms.
ZHANDER: For their personal consumption.
ALBERT: Yes, for personal consumption only.
ALBERT: (Demonstrates harvesting and watering) Harvesting the mushroom is very easy. It’s like pinching an ear. And if you are going to water the fruiting bags, just get the water hose and spray thoroughly.
ZHANDER: That fast?
ALBERT: Yes, mushrooms need moisture. But you also need to water its surroundings, the growing house, the walls, and floor. You also need to water the back part of the fruiting bags.
ALBERT: We sell each bag for twenty-five pesos (PHP 25.00).
ZHANDER: After harvesting the mushrooms, will they sprout again so I could gather some more?
ALBERT: Yes, you are right. Based on our experience, you can repeatedly harvest from a single fruiting bag within a span of six months. Five days after the first flushing, more petals will grow. You can also do a lot of things with oyster mushroom like mushroom chicharron (chips), mushroom bagoong (paste), and mushroom atchara (pickled).
ZHANDER VO: Albert says they now have a wide variety of mushrooms in their farm.
ZHANDER: You told me a while back that you experienced a breakthrough?
ALBERT: Yes, in one of the trials we were able to spawn a rare wild mushroom called “Kalaw.” They grow in the wild but we were able to cultivate them. We also have Ganoderma mushrooms, which is being used as food supplement. This one here is a pink mushroom.
ZHANDER: Are all these edible?
ALBERT: Yes, they are all food source.
ZHANDER VO: Albert is also supplying spawns and helping those who want to start a mushroom business.
ALBERT: Probably the biggest mistake of Filipinos venturing into businesses is that they want to get ahold of the return of investment right away. That’s very, very wrong. We need to invest on time as well. Just keep heart and there’d be a great chance to earn big time.
CRAB CONDO
(CRAB CONDOMINIUM)
ZHANDER VO: In the mountains of Alfonso, Cavite, twin brothers Carlo and Paulo Dumael successfully established a vertical mud crab farm or colloquially known as ‘crab condo.’
CARLO DUMAEL: Hello, I am Carlo Dumael, the farm manager of Highland’s Crab.
PAULO DUMAEL: I am Paulo Dumael, assistant…(forgets his designation) Sorry, sorry, sorry! Take two!
CARLO DUMAEL: (Second take) Hello, I am Carlo Dumael, the farm manager of Highland’s Crab.
PAULO DUMAEL: I am Paulo Dumael, the assistant farm manager of Highland’s Crab.
ZHANDER VO: They built the crab farm in their backyard in 2021.
CARLO: We underwent training in Pampanga. We started with 500 crab boxes at first. But now, we have 672 boxes full of crabs.
ZHANDER VO: In the traditional way of crab farming, crabs are raised in ponds with mud and brackish water. But in Highland’s Crabs, the Dumael brothers are using Recirculating Aquaculture System or RAS technology. Crabs are placed in individual boxes, placed vertically as if they are in apartments or condominiums.
CARLO: This type of aquaculture is being practiced in many countries for so long a time, but usually for fish farming.
PAULO: (Instructing Zhander how to feed the crabs) Just give the fish to the crab. Be careful as the crab might grab your tongs, though.
ZHANDER: I was shocked when it immediately grabbed the food!
PAULO: For the crab fattening process, it takes three to four weeks for the juvenile crab to get fat. For larger crabs, it takes a bit longer for them to get fat.
ZHANDER VO: Maintaining a vertical mud crab farm is a tedious task. The brackish water must flow through a proper filtration system.
PAULO: We remove ammonia from the water through our filtration system. We have separate filter stages here to assure we have clean water so the crabs would survive. The first filter compartment has shells in it. Then the water passes through these lava rocks. We also culture the naturally occurring bacteria in the water. We need to do this before putting crabs inside the boxes, or else they will all die. We get our seawater from Batangas. Then we mix them with freshwater to create brackish water.
ZHANDER: For those who want to do crab farming at home, can they improvise? Say for example, using styrofoam boxes?
CARLO: Yes, they may use those. Or, they may also use tubs or crates. But you know, if they want to stock up many crabs for commercial purposes, the Recirculating Aquaculture System is the most efficient. This is easier to clean and maintain. Also, you may put various sizes of crabs in here.
ZHANDER: (Jokingly) In Tagalog, we have crab classifications like male, female, and “gay” crabs, right? Isn’t that a little bit sexist?
CARLO: (Laughs) No, it’s not. Generally, male crabs have triangular abdominal flaps. They also have larger pinchers than females. While female crabs, like this one, have rounded abdominal flaps.
ZHANDER: They say that “gay” crabs are more delicious?
CARLO: “Gay” crabs are scientifically female crabs. But they don’t breed yet because they are still juvenile or virgin. Their abdominal flaps are oval-shaped, narrower than those of the female crabs. Its aligue or crab fat is so soft that it melts in your mouth, similar to the yolk of a salted duck egg.
ZHANDER: So, technically speaking…
PAULO: “Gay” crabs are actually female crabs, or virgin crabs. We just call them “gay” in Tagalog.
ZHANDER: (Jokingly) I told you this topic is topic is sexist!
CARLO: Crabs are nocturnal animals. They live in dark places that’s why we keep them in these boxes without any light source.
ZHANDER VO: Though the Dumael brothers are living in the highlands and there are no fish ponds here, they were able to pull this business through.
CARLO: In their natural habitat, crabs live in brackish rivers. They will eat anything. The ultimate problem there is, sometimes they may eat garbage. We don’t know what’s under the mud. They may also eat rotting carcasses of other animals. Crabs are literally scavengers. They will eat trash. But in this vertical mud crab farm, we can control what they eat. We are assured that they only get fresh and clean fish to eat. If the seafoods that we eat are also eating clean, then we are assured of our safety as well if we consume them.
ZHANDER VO: Aside from the crab farm, they also opened a small restaurant in their backyard offering various crab delicacies—fresh from the adjacent farm. They also offer seminars for those who want to venture in this kind of business.
TRANSITION
EXTROSPIEL: The success of venturing into urban agriculture is not comparable to a mushroom that will instantly pop out from nowhere (Filipino traditional quote: “susulpot na parang kabute”). Crab mentality, or pulling others down for you to succeed, is also not an option. If you want to succeed in doing urban agriculture, you need to protect and nurture it with love and patience. You’ll see, the seeds of your labor will bloom abundantly. Until next time, this is Zhander Cayabyab, reporting for RMN DZXL 558 Special Report.