Employees and students of the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) attended the pre-dispersal training on Fighting COVID-19 with Collaborative Vegetable Gardening (COVeG) held at the University Function Hall on October 26. 

Spearheaded by the MMSU Extension Directorate, the COVeG project is a strategy of the University to transfer relevant crop production technologies to its constituents and engage them into producing their own food through backyard vegetable gardening. 

Attendees in the pre-dispersal training are those who signified their interest to become part of the project. 

In the training, the beneficiaries received vegetable seeds and seedlings such as pole sitao, pechay, upland kangkong, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, squash, tomato, eggplant, and finger pepper.

Also, topics such as vegetable production, record keeping, organic fertilizer production, and values enhancement were discussed to the participants. 

Resource speakers on the topics were Ms. Marylis Nalundasan and Ms. Marissa Atis, personnel of research directorate; Dr. Sosima Demandante, chief of technology demonstration; Dr. Floramante Pastor, faculty member of College of Agriculture, Food and Sustainable Development; and retired CAFSD professor Beatriz Malab, respectively.

"Let us go viral [in this endeavor] until we can put something in our dining tables,” said MMSU President Shirley C. Agrupis as she encouraged the participants to make their gardening activities more productive not only for the beauty of their surroundings, but also for healthy and safe food for their families. 

Aside from being beneficiaries, the project participants will also serve as models on backyard gardening to other households, as they are expected to share the technology to their own communities, thereby ensuring food security in the locality.

The COVEG project is in support of the Plant, Plant, Plant program of the Department of Agriculture and is coherent with the mission of building sustainable households and communities. – by Kimberly S. Miguel and Daniel P. Tapaoan, Jr. (StratCom)