The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Regional Office No. VIII, in partnership with the Provincial S&T Offices of Leyte, Biliran, Samar, and Northern Samar, collaborated on a two-day Experiential Learning activity on December 27-28, 2022, as part of the region's Innovation, Science, and Technology for Accelerating Regional Technology-based (iSTART) development program initiatives.
The experiential learning or benchmarking activity was designed to gain the latest farm management innovations and best practices on Hydroponics Farming Models indoor and urban Systems that can be adopted and integrated into various S&T-based livelihood projects in agri-based, manufacturing, and services sectors in Eastern Visayas Region.
For the two-day activity, the DOST 8 team was oriented and toured the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), Los Banos, Laguna farming management practices and their demo farms for hydroponic farming systems, greenhouse plant nursery management, and organic agriculture.
The team also visited the Modern Organic Warehouse Farm of Urban Greens Hydroponics System Inc. in Makati City. The Urban Greens hydroponic farm system aims to ensure the production of healthy, tasty, high-quality greens and the reliable year-round availability of crops grown locally.
One of the major highlights during the visit was a potential project partnership between Urban Greens and DOST RO8 for technology transfer and the sharing of best urban farming management practices that can be implemented in Region 8. This partnership aims to increase the production of hydroponic-grown greens crops in the region, which are cleaner, fresher, and smarter-grown.