Healthy view from the rooftop

MANILA, Philippines – Atop a five-story apartment in Upper Market road along Padre Zamora street in Baguio City, overlooking the city center and with a view of three of the top educational institutions in the city, is the Baguio Organic Rooftop Garden.

It was only three years ago when a Kalinga-born farmer, who took up Commerce in college at the former Baguio Colleges Foundation, returned to the trade of his parents and his forebears. “It was maybe in my blood,” says Daniel Agliam, who is head of the Department of Agriculture’s Institutional Development Unit.

He shifted to organic farming after a typhoon devastated his garden along Longlong, La Trinidad, Benguet. He moved back to Baguio where his family resides, and decided to do what he loves best – till the earth and by the sweat of his brow, provide his family with food that is healthy.

His garden is not a large space, just eight by six meters. He divided this into eight plots, seven of which are used to raise vegetables and the last as a composting plot, its output to be used for his plants.

He also installed three pipes that serve as aquaponics to water the plots in which he plants lettuce, pechay and wombok. The pipes serve a double purpose, as water used there flows down to tanks that he has populated with shrimps and tilapia. “It is just the start,” he says of the tanks which now have 100 tilapia fingerlings and 200 shrimps.

Over three of the plots he set up tables where at least a dozen boxes grow hydroponic vegetables, usually lettuce, pechay or wombok. The yield is a kilo per box or 12 kilos per batch of planting.

Herbs are also in abundance – tarragon, rosemary, basil and chili. There is also a mix of lowland vegetables like ampalaya (bitter gourd), eggplant, tomato and a “three in one” variety which is shaped like a tomato, has stems and leaves like the eggplant and tastes like ampalaya.

Naturally, he also plants highland vegetables. He is particularly proud of his arugula, which fetches P200 per kilo.

Agliam’s three-year effort has paid off, and there is now steady demand for his organic vegetables. All his three kids – aged 24, 22 and 18 – serve as his assistants and they have learned the trade that sustained their elders and their families. 

The eldest, Dwayne, is the former regional head of the 4 H (heart, head, hand, health), an organization composed of farmers’ children. Earlier this year, he was recognized by the Universal Harvester and JayCees International as one of the outstanding farmers of the Philippines in the urban category. That came along with a P50,000 cash prize.

Agliam’s rooftop gardening efforts have proven economically viable, augmenting not only his monthly salary, but also providing nutritious and healthy vegetables for their consumption. And he could do these in his spare time – before and after work, during weekends and on holidays. He has undergone additional training at the DA-CAR or gets inputs from fellow organic farmers and visiting farmers from other countries like Japan or Korea. 

This is knowledge he hopes to share with fellow farmers willing to spend time and resources to go into organic farming. “I hope this trend will grow and fellow farmers will go into organic gardening,” he says, not only to offer healthy vegetables but also showcase the best of Baguio and the Cordilleras.