LOS BAÑOS, Laguna (PIA) — The University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), through the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB), on Thursday turned over 5,000 seed packets to the Department of Agriculture (DA) for distribution to oil spill-hit communities in the Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan) region.

UPLB Chancellor Jose Camacho Jr. personally handed the packets containing seedlings of ampalaya, sitao, cucumber, okra, and upo, to DA Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban and High-Value Crops Development Program Director Glenn Panganiban.

The initiative is part of DA and IPB’s collaboration under the “Scaling-Out the Utilization of IPB-Developed Seeds for Selected Lowland Vegetables Toward Sustainable Seed System” project. Launched in September 2022, the project provides an alternative source of food and income to calamity-stricken residents.

Citing the oil spill's impact on the livelihood of residents, Chancellor Camacho stressed the importance of planting as a way to secure food security, especially for fisherfolks. 

“Kailangan nila ng ayuda sa kanilang pang-araw araw na pangangailangan at pagkain kaya ito ang aksyon ng IPB at UPLB na magbigay ng mga libreng seeds to be used by the people of MIMAROPA for food production. Malaking bagay kasi yung oil spill kaya for quite some time it will affect their livelihood, their productivity so this is a response to that challenge,” Camacho said.

Camacho added that they are working closely with the IPB and DA IV-B to conduct various trainings and visitations for the beneficiaries to ensure proper management of the seedlings. 

“That will be the next activity that the IPB will be doing in terms of assisting them, the technical know-how on how to plant and how to take care of the plants until lumago hanggang sa makain nila ito. From the farm, to the fork process,” the Chancellor added.

The packets and other materials are set to be distributed to individuals by last week of March after the DA regional office has finished its assessment to local communities.

Camacho commits that UPLB is ready to collaborate with local governments by donating and distributing aid as well as serving the communities with their team of experts and scientists especially for marine industry.

“Nananawagan ako sa mga LGU leaders na naapektuhan ng oil spill to coordinate with us directly sa UPLB how else we can offer you in terms of assistance. We are here. After all, we are the national university[…] We can easily harness our resources, both material and human resources. It is our expertise,” the Chancellor concluded. (CH/PIA-Laguna)