MANDAUE CITY, Cebu – The Mandaue City Agriculture Office has not received any reports of heat-related crop damage from local farmers or gardeners, despite the ongoing high temperatures.
City Agriculturist Sharon Mangadlao noted that this year’s conditions are significantly different from last year’s El Niño, which caused severe crop damage due to extreme heat.
“For now, okay pa ta, makasustain pa. Hinuon, sige naman og init pero ang nindot lang ig gabii mo-ulan. Dili pa kaayo nato mafeel ang effect,” said Mangadlao.
(For now, we’re still okay; we can sustain it. Although it’s been consistently hot, the good thing is that it rains at night. We haven’t really felt the effects yet.)
The Mandaue City Agriculture Office continues to monitor local gardens and support gardeners by providing various vegetable seeds and seedlings, including drought-resistant varieties that require less water.
These include leafy vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage, and spinach, as well as eggplant and bitter gourd, which can be harvested in just a month.
Last year, the office also distributed water storage containers and shade nets to help protect crops from direct sunlight.
As an industrial city, Mandaue does not have large plantations. Most local gardens are small, with crops grown either for personal consumption or for sale within the barangay.
There are around 1,000 registered gardeners in Mandaue City.
“Dili gyud exact nga numbers, kay kung naay projects like construction, mag-construction worker sila. Kung mahuman ang project, balik sila og garden/farming. Unlike sa mga probinsiya nga kung farmer, farmer gyud kay mao ang ila’ng livelihood diri kay naa man sila daghan kapa-ingnan kay daghan man ta og companies. Ang atoang gardeners, modaghan, mogamay, modaghan,” Mangadlao said.
(It’s not an exact number because when there are projects like construction, some gardeners take on construction work. Once the project is finished, they return to gardening or farming. Unlike in rural areas, where farmers rely solely on agriculture for their livelihood, people here have more options because of the many companies. Our number of gardeners fluctuates—it increases, decreases, then increases again.)
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