Philippines: Climate change adaptation in farming - Feature

By Oliver T. Baccay

For Cagayan Valley’s agriculture sector, the threat has been there in the last 10 years. In fact, the signs may be interpreted as urgent if one considers the previous years when harvest barely made it to expectations.

As a region which plays a key role in the balance of agricultural productivity, Cagayan Valley cannot afford to decrease production these days as it will have an effect on the entire country’s economy. But the threat disguised as Climate Change looms and may affect production, farmer-leaders told agriculture officials recently.

Just how resilient and adapted to natural calamities as an effect of climate change are the region’s preferred crops would be a lingering question.

The region is within the typhoon belt, prone to different disasters that cause devastations to farmer’s productivity. Without these calamities, farmers’ produce would be enough to feed the nation or even a surplus production for export.

With these challenges, the workers of the Department of Agriculture (DA) Region 2 as well as other agriculturists continue to stretch their research muscles to address these challenges not only to ensure production, but also to develop disaster-resilient crops.

These efforts, Hector Tabbun, information officer, said include the researches for drought and water resistant corn, palay, legumes and root crop varieties.

He said as a result, one of the successful researches conducted in Cagayan by PCARRD and DA was the drought-resistant peanut variety. The variety has been named ‘G.D. Lasam Pride” in honor of slain Regional Director Gumercindo D. Lasam. It is now registered with the National Seed Industry Council.

“There are other efforts the agency and our partners do to get adapted to the effects of climate change. We need to do this as global climate change is now a reality. We need to ensure sustainability of food supply for our people,” Tabbun said in an interview.

DA also constructed several Small Water Impounding Projects (SWIPS) in different areas to harvest sufficient water during the rainy season to be utilized during the dry season.

The farmers are also continuously taught how to harvest rainwater from the small type water reservoir as a climate change adaptation measure.

Other agencies are likewise into interventions to provide other alternative livelihood sources and on maximizing the benefits of the SWIPs including the establishment of fish cages, as well as maximizing their uses as agro-industrial areas.

One successful SWIP project documented is the Dalaoig SWIP in Alcala, Cagayan which continue to serve hundreds of rice farmers in the area.

Ferdinand M. Caraang, chairman of the Dalaoig Multi-Purpose Cooperative, said the establishment of the SWIP in their area enables them to triple their harvest since its construction.

Other than these, the DA continuously award post-harvest facilities to farmer cooperatives as intervention in the climate change adaptation efforts of the government.

For region 2, not only is the government ready to meet the challenges of the global phenomenon. The farmers, too, are.

(PSL/OTB/PIA-2 Cagayan)