Policy Imperatives to Promote Urban Agriculture in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic Among Local Government Units in the Philippines

What policy interventions are necessary to promote urban agriculture (UA) as a way of life? The likes of COVID-19 pandemic do not just spur interest in implementing a household-level urban agriculture set-up, but it also clearly highlights an ongoing phenomenon where people would want to grow their own food, to have ensured access to enough safe and nutritious food, and to rediscover the joy of planting as a way of life. To institutionalize urban agriculture, the Local Government Units in the Philippines must take active leadership in mainstreaming urban agriculture, integrate in the formulation of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP), and Local Climate Change Adaptation Plan (LCCAP), and complement existing programs of the Philippine Department of Agriculture.