Sustainable Development Goal 2

 

Zero Hunger

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

The Ateneo Center for Educational Development (ACED) realized that poor academic performance and high absence rates among pupils in public schools were both caused by malnutrition and hunger. They thus began a in-school feeding program for students in public schools, and their work was crucial in ensuring that the nation's feeding law was passed in 2017. In order to further address poverty and food insecurity, Ateneo offers scholarship recipients meal vouchers and makes sure that there are affordable and healthy food options available on campus.

Ateneo de Manila University's School of Science and Engineering (SOSE) has recently announced a new hydroponics farming project that features a variety of lettuce types. This project started with the Ateneo Innovation Center or AIC research assistant’s personal effort to grow vegetables at home during the height of the pandemic. Using his learning from AIC’s in-house hydroponics system set-up by a graduate student doing his Master’s thesis, he installed a hydroponics system on the roof of his house. His family consumed the harvest, the rest he sold to neighbors and he earned around Php450 to Php500 from a one square meter-sized hydroponics set-up.

The SOSE Dean, Dr. Guerrero, saw its potential as a research project after hearing this story and seeing the graduate student’s hydroponics set-up inside the AIC. He instructed the AIC team to survey possible location within the campus where a hydroponics system can be set-up. Adopting the concept of rooftop vegetable gardening, a roof deck in the CTC Building was identified as an appropriate location for the set-up. Anticipating that this can serve as a laboratory for research projects, a greenhouse was constructed to house the hydroponics system. Interests on protective and precision agriculture grew and led to equipping the hydroponics system with sensors, visual monitoring and data storage technologies for faster interventions and better yield. It is equipped with small cameras to detect insect or pest infestation. It has sensors to measure the appropriate concentration of nutrient solution in water and other parameters necessary for the growth of lettuce, such as temperature, moisture, NPK values, acidity and salinity. The sensors generate data that are sent to the Cloud via internet and stored in a Drive. It is also connected to IoT platform that displays growth parameter data in graphical form in near real time.

This initiative does not only provide a venue for SOSE research but also promote sustainability and innovation, as the lettuce is grown in a pollution-free environment and is free from harmful pesticides. Ateneans can purchase fresh lettuce heads with their roots intact and growing cups attached for only Php 25.00 per cup/head. This set-up had several cycles of harvest of mustard, pechay and seven varieties of lettuce -- Estrosa, Rincon Romaine, Green Rapid, Olmetie, Lollo Bionda, Romaine, and Lalique. Fresh vegetables ae always sold-out and earnings are used to sustain the greenhouse and the hydroponics set-up.

This effort supports a sustainable and eco-friendly initiative, providing fresh and healthy produce to the community. Not only is hydroponic farming reducing water usage, but it is also eliminating the need for harmful pesticides and lowering the carbon footprint typically associated with traditional agriculture. It also contributes to the greening and microclimate cooling of an institution situated in a dense urban area. Being situated in a roof deck, the room below it consumes less energy in its aircon operations.  

This initiative aligns with Ateneo University's commitment to addressing food insecurity and hunger, contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger.