Villar, BFAR establish urban aquaponics facility in Las Piñas

            Senator Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, together with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), has set up an aquaponics facility to benefit a community in Las Piñas, where the senator has also put up a vegetable garden.

          Urban aquaponics is part of BFAR’s Fisheries Resiliency Projects to address food-related challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Aquaponics or hydroponics is a way of growing vegetables without soil and at the same time growing fish in the same setup as well.

          “It is really time for city dwellers to grow their own food even in an urban setting with limited space. Food self-sufficiency is very important especially during disasters or emergencies such as the ongoing pandemic,” said Villar, who has been advocating urban farming to beat food poverty.

          The urban aquaponics and vegetable garden are located at the Christ The King Subdivision, which is under the Community Mortgage Program (CMP). It is a mortgage financing program of the Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC) which assists legally organized associations of low-income groups, underprivileged or homeless citizens to purchase and develop a tract of land under the concept of community ownership.

          The primary objective of the program is to assist residents of blighted or depressed areas to own the lots they occupy and establish sustainable and resilient communities in coordination with the local government units (LGUs).  “I am glad to have been given an opportunity to help the association and the barangay residents as well."