DA 7 Supports 47th Nutrition Month Celebration

In celebration of the 47th Nutrition Month Celebration themed “Malnutrisyon patuloy na labanan, First 1000 Days tutukan!,” the Department of Agriculture RFO 7 supports the cause with programs promoting good nutrition to pregnant mothers.

In coordination with the National Nutrition Council 7, one of the programs to solve malnutrition among the pregnant is the “Gulayan sa Barangay,” which started in 2019. Gulayan sa Barangay is a program of the Department of Agriculture RFO 7 to help secure nutritious food for families especially pregnant mothers in the barangay.

Meiquiades (Quian) Ibarra, Cheif Agriculture and Information Section of Department of Agriculture RFO7 (DA 7) said that this program aims to promote good nutrition to pregnant mothers to provide them with nutritious food to help in the development of the infant.

“The aim of the program is to campaign and to promote for healthy and good nutrition by eating vegetables and fruits,” Ibarra said.

Due to the pandemic, food security has become a problem, which the launching of the “Plant, Plant, Plant” program aims to solve. The program aims to have continuous availability and accessibility of food.

“Last year when the pandemic started, we also promoted the “Plant, Plant, Plant” program to let families grow their food at home,” Ibarra said.

The DA 7 provided various vegetable seeds to the different barangays in the region for the program.

“We are able to establish 337 Gulayan sa Barangay. We provided them various vegetable seeds or “pinakbet seeds” because the pinakbet is one of the best sources of good nutrition for women especially for lactating mothers,” Ibarra said.

Pinakbet is a Filipino dish composed of different sauted vegetables such as the okra, eggplant, water spinach (kangkong), and squash (kalabasa).

Ibarra also said that these vegetables do not take long to be harvested and consumed by mothers.

“These kinds of vegetables are short gestating kana bang di ka maghuwat ug dugay so insakto gyud ni sa quarantine period (Thes kinds of vegetables are short gestating or does not take long to harvest these vegetables are ideal for the quarantine period),” Ibarra added. (ASC)