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Fort
Ramon Magsaysay in Palayan City, Nueva Ecija boasts of
having the largest nursery in RP aside from being the
the largest military reservation of the Armed Forces of
the Philippines. The facility is supervised by Seventh
Infantry Division Training Unit commander Lt. Col. Jesus
Sarsagat. He said that the nursery covered 3,200 square
meters of land inside the military reservation.
Sarsagat related that they have been planting and
distributing the seedlings for two years now. The
nursery is housed in a nylon netting- covered enclosure
for protection. The seedlings will be distributed to
private individuals, non-government organizations and
local government units. The seedlings includes different
varieties of hardwood, fruit-bearing and flowering trees
like April Shower, Hong Kong Tree and Fire Tree, which
will be used to beautify roadsides.
The nursery in Fort Magsaysay is larger than the
nurseries in the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources and the Department of Agriculture. The nursery
uses a gravity-driven drip irrigation system with the
water coming from the nearby Cordero Dam. "Even those
from agricultural schools" like UP Los Baņos and Central
Luzon State University "claim that our nursery is bigger
than theirs," said Sarsagat.
The seedlings were mainly taken cared of by the new
recruits which improves the soldiers deep sense of
commitment in protecting the environment. These is what
the soldiers do when they are not training for combat to
while away the time. They are also raising farm animals
like chickens, goats, turkeys and geese and even
ostriches. |