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Official Publication of the Philippine Information Agency Bicol Regional Office, in cooperation with the RIAC-REDIRAS - RDC Bicol



Wednesday, November 27, 2013

DA steps up disaster risk reduction capacities of farmers, fisherfolks in Bicol

LEGAZPI CITY, Nov 27 (PIA) – The Department of Agriculture (DA) in Bicol, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, has since been carrying out initiatives to improve resilience of the agriculture and fishery sectors in the Bicol region, especially in areas along the eastern seaboard, to ensure the stakeholders' main livelihood and food security.

DA and FAO recently conducted the project entitled “Strengthening Capacities for Climate Risk Management and Disaster Preparedness in Bicol Region" for authorities and stakeholders in areas highly vulnerable to disaster and climate hazards frequently affecting the livelihood of farmers and fisherfolks.

“The new project boosts replication of protested good practice options and promotes the installment and use of climate services for agriculture and improved risk and loss assessment tools and methods within different government organization involved in mainstreaming of DRR and CCA in the agriculture sector,” said DA Bicol director Abelardo Bragas.

The project primarily aims to enhance livelihoods resilience of small-scale farmers and fisherfolks in disaster prone areas in the region through institutionalization of DRR in agriculture.

Bragas said project sites are selected based on their location to a nearby the agro-met/synoptic station of Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services (Pagasa) to facilitate the provision of farm weather bulletins (FWB) or climate outlooks and advisories.

FWBs based on weather forecasts from PAGASA guides farmers, LGUs and institutions for strategic choices of season specific cropping.

“This information is used in the selection of good practices and improvement of disaster preparedness at the field level,” Bragas said.

Selectes areas are Albay, Sorsogon and Catanduanes provinces.

Benefitting from this project are farmers and fishers from Camalig, Libon and Ligao City in Albay; Casiguran, Irosin and Gubat in Sorsogon; and Bato and San Miguel in Catanduanes.

DA is the leading agency that facilitates a participatory consultation process among stakeholders for the development of a Plan of Action (PoA) for DRR in agriculture in which DA is the lead agency.

“The information gathered through a series of CBDRRM planning workshops and brainstorming sessions held in six provinces are used to identify short and long term actions for DRR enhancement in agriculture and are consolidated into a regional PoA addressing thematic areas of research, knowledge management and capacity development,” he explained.

Also part of the project is the dissemination and replication of good practice options (GPO) for DRRM to reduce the impact of hazards and risks.

Among GPOs replicated are the stress-tolerant/early maturing rice varieties, ratooning, integrated crop and livestock farming.

Web-based application software for assessing the potential and actual impacts of different hazards, specifically on rice and corn sectorand other major crops in the region, has likewise been developed.(MAL/SAA-PIA5/Albay)

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