There are more opportunities in urban farming than many would think.

This could be producing agricultural products for one’s personal use or as a business.

If you are an expert in growing fingerlings in an aquarium, you can make a business by buying what they call "tiny" lapu-lapu fingerlings. These are about 3/4th inch in length. They may cost P5 or P7 each but there could be a big mortality if one is not proficient in taking care of them. However, if one is experienced and can achieve a high percentage of survival, it could be highly profitable to grow them into bigger sizes which commercial fish farms are buying.

Dr. Ruben Tan of Macalelon, Quezon, for instance, buys a lot of large fingerlings which he stocks in his fish farm. At any one time, he has 10,000 pieces of different sizes. That enables him to deliver 300 pieces of live lapulapu (500 grams each) to his two buyers in Manila every week.

Edible herbs

Lowly camote

Even the lowly camote can also be a money-maker in the urban area. The beauty about this plant is that it can be grown easily in the backyard. If there is a vacant lot in the subdivision where you live, you can plant camote not for its tubers but for its tender tops. The tender tops are highly saleable in the local market. One ladey we know harvests just the tender tops about four inches long. She makes four small bundles out of one kilo, then sells each bundle at P10. That’s P40 per kilo.

Other old favorites that could be grown for the local market are alugbati, malunggay, finger pepper, siling labuyo for its tender shoots, and many others. Even growing hybrid papaya and lakatan banana can be rewarding.

This is a variety of hot pepper from China introduced by Adela Ang of EDSA Garden House in Quezon City. It is a prolific variety with upright fruits that are very colorful when they mature. This can be grown in containers as well as direct in the ground. It can be both decorative and economic.

A member of the SapuMasla Fisherfolk Association (SMFA), an organization composed of 50 former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) combatants, holds a humpback grouper which the association has cultured in the pristine waters of the Sarangani Bay in Malapatan, Saranggani. The fish, which sells at R2,000 per kilo live, is in growing demand in major Asian markets such as Hong Kong and China. USAID’s Targeted Commodity Expansion Program (TCEP), which is being implemented by the Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program, introduced members of the SMFA to high-value aquaculture production and provided them with fingerlings to start the initial production cycle. GEM also assisted the SMFA in marketing its initial harvest of ten kilos to a leading fishing company based in General Santos City. GEM has trained more than 9,400 former MNLF combatants - who are graduates of USAID’s Livelihood Enhancement and Peace (LEAP) Program - in the production of other high-value commodities such as vegetables, cardaba bananas, mangoes, peanuts, prawns, catfish, grouper and tilapia. GEM is being implemented under the oversight of the Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCo). (GEM Program)

A new project of Console Farms in San Miguel, Bulacan, is the growing of leafy greens under greenhouse. These include lettuce, pak choi and others. Console Farms’ major business is poultry layers and hatchery but is also into other agricultural projects such as mango and other fruits, sheep, aquaculture (tilapia and Pangasius), and into ornamental plants. Photo shows Mrs. Soledad Agbayani, proprietor, inside her greenhouse planted to leafy greens. She sells her vegetables at the AANI Weekend Market at the FTI Complex in Taguig City as well as at the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City.