DA vows for climate-resilient agri-fishery sector
Credit to Author: Eireene Jairee Gomez| Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2020 16:35:53 +0000
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has committed to strongly pursue climate-resilient agricultural technologies and systems to sustain productivity, ensure more income of farmers and fisherfolk, and attain food security in the country.
“Extreme weather, widely considered as the ‘new normal,’ has already and will continue to impact on the country’s agriculture and fishery sector, and national food security,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar said in a statement on Monday.
“Hence, since August 5, when we assumed office, I have instructed all Department of Agriculture agencies to do away with the ‘business as usual attitude,’ and asked them to level up,” he added.
The DA is composed of regional field offices (RFOs), bureaus, attached agencies and corporations for the implementation of various commodity banner programs, Office of the (DA) Secretary, and foreign- and locally-funded project offices.
“All members of the DA family should adapt to our ‘New Thinking for Agriculture’ and imbibe the eight paradigms to attain our vision of a food-secure Philippines with prosperous farmers and fisherfolk,” Dar said.
“Further, they should adjust and transform in order to level up climate-resilient agriculture,” he added.
The agriculture chief noted that the DA-Systems Wide Climate Change Office is set to conduct a workshop on February 18, in Quezon City.
Early this year, Dar ordered the expansion and upscaling of the DA Adaptation and Mitigation Initiatives in Agriculture (AMIA) strategy to the municipal, provincial and regional levels to test climate-resilient agriculture programs.
“We need science-based and evidence-based options and actions that we can easily provide to all our stakeholders. The creation of more AMIA villages is one of the strategies that the DA is adopting to address the challenges of climate change,” he said.
AMIA villages are where climate-resilient agricultural pilot programs are tested. Data collected from these villages will be used for scaling-up in areas with compatible profiles.
“In all, we should provide farmers and fisherfolk and LGUs (local government units) weather information and advisories to optimize production and minimize losses. The DA-RFOs should learn from the success of DA-RFO5 or Bicol region, as it has perfected the Climate Information Service model to generate weather and climate farm and fishing advisories,” Dar explained.
Meanwhile, Dar recently renamed the Department of Agriculture Systems Wide Climate Change Office to Climate Resilient Agriculture Office (CRAO) that will provide strategic direction and oversight in the mobilization of resources and capacities toward achieving the DA’s climate change agenda.
The necessary support to be provided by CRAO include technical, infrastructure, research and development, financing, insurance, marketing and extension services.
In particular, the DA’s Philippine Rice Research Institute will provide farmers climate-resilient seed varieties to make them more productive and competitive while the DA’s Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization will provide farmers’ cooperatives and associations post-harvest facilities and other farm machineries to improve the coping ability of vulnerable communities.
For its part, the DA’s credit arm Agricultural Credit Policy Council will develop adaptation financing packages to suit the needs of vulnerable farmers, within and outside AMIA areas.
Lastly, the DA’s Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. will insure beneficiaries and compensate them if and when the government’s adaptation interventions fail.