Philippines: Urban farm­ing gets cer­ti­fic­a­tion

The ini­ti­at­ive aims to pro­fes­sion­al­ize city farm­ing and cre­ate new live­li­hood oppor­tun­it­ies while strength­en­ing food secur­ity.

Sun.Star Cebu, 8 Aug 2026

Excerpt:

THE Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture (DA) and the Tech­nical Edu­ca­tion and Skills Devel­op­ment Author­ity (Tesda) have signed a five-year agree­ment to develop a national cer­ti­fic­a­tion pro­gram for urban agri­cul­ture.

The ini­ti­at­ive aims to pro­fes­sion­al­ize city farm­ing and cre­ate new live­li­hood oppor­tun­it­ies while strength­en­ing food secur­ity.

The part­ner­ship will estab­lish Urban Agri­cul­ture Pro­duc­tion NC II, which will set national com­pet­ency stand­ards, train­ing reg­u­la­tions, cur­ricula and assess­ment tools, form­ally recog­niz­ing urban agri­cul­ture as a tech­nic­al­voca­tional qual­i­fic­a­tion.

Agri­cul­ture Sec­ret­ary Fran­cisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the ini­ti­at­ive builds on the surge in urban garden­ing dur­ing the Covid-19 pan­demic, when many Filipi­nos turned rooftops, bal­conies and vacant lots into veget­able gar­dens.

“We are, by nature, nur­tur­ers. Today, our task is to match that instinct with know­ledge, skills and oppor­tun­ity,” Laurel said.

Tesda Sec­ret­ary Jose Fran­cisco Ben­itez said agri­cul­ture remains one of the agency’s top schol­ar­ship sec­tors, adding that the part­ner­ship will expand oppor­tun­it­ies for Filipi­nos to earn live­li­hoods through urban farm­ing while sup­port­ing the coun­try’s food secur­ity goals.

To sup­port the pro­gram, the agen­cies will estab­lish an Urban Agri­cul­ture Tech­no­logy Demon­stra­tion and Train­ing Cen­ter at the Tesda Com­plex in Taguig. Addi­tional train­ing hubs will be set up in Tesda regional cen­ters, DA facil­it­ies and selec­ted urban farm­ing sites nation­wide.

The pro­gram will cover mod­ern pro­duc­tion meth­ods such as hydro­ponics, ver­tical farm­ing, pro­tec­ted cul­tiv­a­tion, con­tainer garden­ing and com­post­ing, along­side food safety, biosafety and good agri­cul­tural prac­tices.

The agen­cies said Tesda-cer­ti­fied gradu­ates may pur­sue careers as urban agri­cul­ture prac­ti­tion­ers, train­ers and assessors or estab­lish their own microen­ter­prises. Local gov­ern­ment units, state uni­versit­ies and accred­ited insti­tu­tions will also help expand the coun­try’s pool of qual­i­fied train­ers.

The DA said the ini­ti­at­ive is expec­ted to strengthen local food sys­tems, improve cli­mate resi­li­ence and pos­i­tion urban agri­cul­ture as a viable source of employ­ment and entre­pren­eur­ship rather than simply a house­hold hobby.

Link.

Source: https://cityfarmer.info/philippines-urban-farming-gets-certification/