PH Urban Gardening has found new soil on which to grow: the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, BSP. This is serious – BSP has 3,000,000 members.
Aye, there’s the rub!
BSP is 84 years old, founded in 1936, but has always been composed of boys in high school, who would have had hardly any experience in anything productive, much less in agriculture.
So what is this news that the BSP, along with its millions of boys, is into promoting urban gardening?
Above images: Urban Gardening from Agribusiness PH[1] and “Laging Handa” from BSP. The slogan translates literally to “Always Prepared.” The BSP did not interest me then; today, reading the press release of the Bureau of Plant Industry, BPI, via the Philippine Information Agency, “BSP To Mobilize 3M Members To Promote Urban Agri” (PIA, 11 May 2020), the prospects excite me:
Recognizing the role of urban agriculture as one of the practical, effective measures to (help ensure a) stable food supply amid the threat Covid-19, the Department of Agriculture (DA), through the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Boy Scout of the Philippines (BSP) on 04 May 2020 in Diliman, Quezon City.
Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie said of it:
We are happy that BSP, one of the largest scout organizations in the world, has responded to our call in massively promoting urban agriculture.
This is a new role for the BSP, as far as I know. I just checked the website and only once is the word “garden” mentioned in 1 sentence in the 1-paragraph, 81-word mention of the Turok Liso, Tubo Piso Project, TLTP, in the town of Biliran in Biliran Island in Eastern Visayas. Thus: “TLTP is a sustainable extension project, which equips the beneficiaries with skills and resources needed to build their own (gardens).”
I wonder how. No, gardening is not one of the skills our Boy Scouts are trained to display. No, our Boy Scouts are not prepared for gardening. Now, the MoA says the boys are to promote urban gardening throughout the Philippines – they can only do that after they learn gardening.
So, how do you teach gardening to 3 million boys who would become teachers of gardening anywhere and everywhere in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao?
The MoA is silent on how the Boy Scouts will first learn their urban gardening, but I will not be. After all, I am a teacher, a BSA graduate from UP Los Baños, major in Ag Education (high school). The Boy Scouts are right up my alley.
Now, can we train 3,000,000 boys at the same time? Yes!
The platform for teaching I suggested earlier in my 01 May 2020 essay, “Digital Extension Coming Up! Actually, It’s Already Here At SEARCA[2]” (Greenfields Asia). SEARCA has begun what it calls SEARCA Online Learning & Virtual Engagements, SOLVE, the digital endeavor showing us the way to create webinars in urban gardening for 3 million Boy Scouts to learn at the same time wherever they are!
SOLVEd!@517
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=fuPccuC388E
[2] https://greenfieldsasia.blogspot.com/2020/05/digital-extension-coming-up-actually.html
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