NOLCOM grows own organic veggies and fruit trees

MANILA, Philippines - One attraction that is worth visiting by any tourist in San Miguel, Tarlac City is the Hardin ng Lunas, a three-hectare organic vegetable garden and orchard situated at the fairways of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Northern Luzon Command (NOLCOM) at Camp General Servillano Aquino.

It features 123 fruit-bearing trees, 56 varieties of organic vegetables, medicinal plants and a tilapia pond. It also provides an alternative, affordable and sustainable form of treatment for rural folks of Tarlac especially those who have no access to a doctor or hospital.

An Integrated Organic Farming and Harvest Festival was held at the Hardin ng Lunas recently. The festival enticed NOLCOM military personnel and their dependents, civilian employees, and the general community of Tarlac to live a healthy lifestyle by promoting the use of scientifically proven medicinal plants and vegetables and growing them in their backyards, idle lands or in recycled containers.

It also provided an on-site training for military personnel about organic vegetable farming methods, exposed them to new farming technologies in the field, made available to them organic vegetable seedlings that are ready for transplant, introduced to them new crop varieties and will help them link their organic products to buyers within and outside their communities.

Hardin ng Lunas is a project that promotes the use and propagation of medicinal plants and organic vegetables in Tarlac led by Dr. Isa Cojuangco Suntay, chairwoman of Tarlac Heritage Foundation. Herbal medicinal plants used for this project are raised and nurtured at the Tarlac College of Agriculture (TCA).

The project is supported by the Tarlac Heritage Foundation in cooperation with St. Luke’s Medical Center Department of Dermatology, Quezon City, East-West Seed Philippines and B&O Green Corp.