With the aim of promoting the creation of urban gardens using recyclable materials, Mayor Manuel Jiménez and the Minister of Agriculture, Limber Cruz López, signed an agreement with which they seek to take advantage of unused spaces and lots for planting of edible products.
Through the agreement, one hundred (100) urban orchards will be installed in private vacant lots, as well such as patios of the houses and unoccupied spaces belonging to the Mayor’s Office, distributed in the three (3) constituencies.
The spaces will be cultivated with vegetables, vegetables, legumes, tubers and musaceae, after evaluations of the land carried out by agricultural technicians. Likewise, the project will include medicinal, aromatic and ornamental plants that are in great demand in the market. The project will be executed together with families, neighborhood associations and independent people, especially women (single mothers) and young people.
After the agreement, the Minister of Agriculture highlighted The importance of these initiatives after the current economic and food crisis that the world is going through, after COVID-19.
“The world is living an uncertainty, since it began. the pandemic, the rise in the cost of raw materials, oil, grains, soybeans, everything has increased (…) the cost of transportation has risen, and containers”, said Limber Cruz.
Likewise, he expressed that the inter-institutional alliance seeks to prevent and seek solutions, which could happen in case of national and international eventualities.
For his part, Mayor Manuel Jiménez thanked Agriculture for supporting the initiative, which will impact favorably to the municipalities in order to create food sufficiency in the demarcation.
“Our markets are going to stop bringing products from far away, in Santo Domingo Este there is enough space to produce (…) this is going to continue beautifying the city, since these places are often used by the unscrupulous to throw garbage, rubble and carry out criminal actions”, he indicated.
The Mayor’s Office will assume The commitment to organize community members for training, create mini markets, set up adequate spaces, encourage cultivation on roofs, patios and in other spaces, for which they will have the advice of the Ministry of Agriculture, which in addition ;s you will put the seeds and the technical components necessary for it.
The project also seeks to encourage interest in urban and semi-urban sectors of the Santo Domingo Este Municipality, in the production of fresh, varied and healthy food, promoting in a special way the participation of women and young people. come. Any surplus of these products would be marketed at affordable prices.
The City Council, through the Community Development Department, will the identification and awareness of the beneficiary families, groups and institutions of the project.
It will also identify and will select spaces as points of sale for agricultural items produced in the orchards and spaces in the municipal markets when products are available.
Santo Domingo This is the largest municipality in the country, with land available and suitable for this and other development projects.
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Training
Jointly, the City Council developed the workshop on “Implementation of Urban Gardens”, aimed at the technical and community personnel of the demarcation.
The workshop seeks that the participants understand the importance of starting to cultivate plants and products foodstuffs that can be of great value to the community.
Yumilka Bruno, Environmental and Risk Management Assistant, pointed out that that the training will include a series of workshops with the aim of preparing those who will be part of the project.
He added: that the main benefits of implementing urban gardens are achieving a higher yield of the land. Also, they allow vegetables to be harvested in a short time, facilitate the transport of fresh food to the population, recycled products are used and strengthen cities against climate change.