Keeping ‘FAITH’ and the backyard fight against hunger

Henrylito D. Tacio

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Keeping ‘FAITH’ and the backyard fight against hunger
With a little 'faith' and patience, families can beat malnutrition by establishing their own direct, year-round access to fresh vegetables

MANILA, Philippines — The fight against hunger can be won right in our backyards. 

Despite the fact that the Philippine economy continues to ascend, a great number of Filipinos, including 15 million children, remain hungry or malnourished, according to Senator Grace Poe

To help solve the problem of hunger, a homegrown solution is being pushed by the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC). 

MBRLC is using “FAITH” in its drive against malnutrition among rural areas. FAITH stands for “Food Always In The Home,” a vegetable gardening technology.  It has been promoting the technology since the 1970s.

“With minimum capital and lots of native enterprise, a family can be assured of a steady supply of nutritious food – and even extra income,” says Roy Alimoane, MBRLC director.

FAITH not only provides food, but can also reduce a farmer’s heavy reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides which pose health and environmental hazards. (READ: PH losing trillions to malnutrition)

“FAITH is a type of vegetable gardening that can provide the necessary protein, vitamins and mineral requirements needed by a family with 6 members,” Alimoane points out.  “We designed it in such a way that it requires minimum labor.” (READ: Fight hunger with veggies)

As the name suggests, there will be vegetables – and some fruits – all throughout the year if its recommended plan is properly followed.  Based on a study, the garden can provide 300 grams (or one bowl) of fresh vegetables daily.

Keeping ‘faith’

The recommended FAITH garden size is 6×16 meters.

The most fertile area in the backyard should be selected for this type of garden.  The area should contain humus, a form of plant food. The types of soil needed for vegetable gardening are loam, silt-loam, or clay loam. (READ: Eat indigenous veggies)

“Establish the garden on a light slope to provide drainage, especially during rainy season,” Alimoane suggests.  “If the area is flat, dig drainage channels or ditches around the planting site.  The garden site must also receive sunshine throughout the day as growing plants need sunshine to manufacture food.”

In addition, the garden site should be located near water sources.  “Water is very important particularly during the dry season,” Alimoane adds.  “During rainy season, however, canals must be built to drain the water out from the garden plots.”

The garden is divided equally into 3 sections, with half of each section held in reserve for replanting.  One section is planted with short-term vegetables that will be ready for use in two to 4 months such as soybeans, tomatoes, pechay (bok choy), cowpeas, bush sitao (string beans), radish, and sweet corn. 

The second section is for crops which can produce vegetables for 6 to 9 months such as ampalaya (bitter gourd), okra, onions, garlic, eggplant, winged beans, golden squash, alugbati (vine spinach), and ginger.  Vegetables that will produce for 11 to 12 months are grown on the third section like patani (lima beans), kulitis, sayote (chayote), kangkong (morning glory), kamote (sweet potato), gabi (taro), cassava, and kadios. 

Along the boundary of the garden and in the year, permanent and semi-permanent crops are grown.  Among these are malunggay, papaya, pineapple, calamansi, and guava. 

For fencing purposes, nitrogen-fixing species like Flemingia macrophylla, Desmodium rensonii, Gliricidia sepium (kakawate), and Indigofera anil are planted; these can also be used as sources of green manure.

Creative gardening

The central feature in FAITH gardening is basket composts, a series of raised garden beds set with bamboo baskets, about one foot in diameter and depth. 

The baskets are filled with little animal manure (particularly goat manure) and some decomposed organic garbage and packed with leaves of leguminous trees and shrubs.  If basket composts are too laborious to do, you can also make trench composts.

If manure is not available, the leaves of leguminous trees and shrubs (flemingia, rensonii, kakawate and/or indigofera) will do.  These are stuffed into the basket or trench composts to provide nitrogen and other nutrients needed by growing crops.

“You can immediately use the composts without waiting for the usual 3 to 4 month period as is necessary in the old method of composting,” Alimoane says.

However, the time to plant seeds or seedlings around the basket or trench composts depends on the state of decomposition of materials inside the compost.  “If the materials at the bottom part are nearly decomposed, seeds and/or seedlings can be planted immediately,” says Alimoane.  “But if most of the materials are still fresh, planting may be done two to 3 weeks later.”

Like most gardening, good management is necessary.  The reserved areas should be planted in time so that there would be continuous supply of vegetables throughout the year.

Since kamote, alugbati, and kangkong are crawling plants, these should be planted in separate beds one meter wide and 6 meters long with a distance of 50 centimeters between beds.  The plants should be set 20 centimeters apart.  

For patani and winged beans, two to 3 seeds per hill are planted around the composts.  These two legumes are the main providers of proteins.  Other plants which are good sources of protein are soybeans, string beans, and bush sitao.

Some crawling vegetables like cucumber, ampalaya, and patola ( should be provided with trellis; otherwise the vines will become a problem later on. 

“Leafy vegetables are high in iron, calcium, vitamin A, and other minerals,” Alimoane shares. It helps to maintain “FAITH.” — Rappler.com

How else can we help fight hunger? Share your creative and practical solutions, e-mail us at move.ph@rappler.com. Be part of the #HungerProjectYou can also join our Facebook group.

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