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ATI pilots Quezon’s climate-resilient community farms

By Gladys Pino

December 11, 2017, 7:59 pm


GENERAL NAKAR, Quezon -- A Masikap Village farm in this town became the first Climate Resilient Agriculture (CRA) community established by the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) in Region IV-A  with some 30 family beneficiaries.

Dr. Rolando Maningas, ATI-IVA information specialist, told PNA on Monday that the climate resilient farming community project is jointly undertaken by the ATI and the Department of Agriculture  (DA) regional field office; Southern Luzon State University (SLSU) in Lucban, Quezon; Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, Lucena City and General Nakar local government.

Maningas said the project aims to aid the municipality and key partners to understand and respond to risks and opportunities presented by future climatic changes and extreme weather events.

“With this modeling, the identified community will be supported and capacitated to prepare for climate change vulnerabilities,” added Maningas citing “several activities must be done in order to fully maximize the learning potentials of the project.”

He added that Quezon province qualified for the program because “it’s one of the most vulnerable provinces to climate change” per DA Multi-Hazard Map.

The province also expressed its willingness to implement the program in the locality, assign at least one Agricultural Extension Worker, Environment and Natural Resources Officer (ENRO) and others to assist in the project team.

It also involves a Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) plan with the necessary extension and support services during the implementation of the project.

The Community/Farmer beneficiary, on the other hand, is chosen based on its physical and mental ability, age (below 65 years old), and willing and able to participate in the project activities.

“The selected community must also allot an area for the project and commit to sustain the project,” added Maningas.

The project components include Ground Truthing, Converge Initiatives, Climate Risks and Vulnerability Assessment, Climate Resilient Livelihood Kits, Climate Resilient Technology Trainings, Knowledge Management and Result Evaluation.

Ground Truthing involves the validation of the climate risks and hazards generated from the AMIA risks map as well as secondary data from the identified community.
 
He said this validation process serves as baseline information for the selection of the project recipient.

Convergence Initiatives, on the other hand, is a series of consultative workshops among the stakeholders and partner institutions that will collaborate in the project with institutions by setting out targets and commitments in support to the establishment of the climate resilient community.

Climate Risks and Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA) is a methodology of learning rural life and their environment from the rural people.  Hence, stakeholders must have full capacity on conducting CRVA because it aims to enable local communities to conduct their own analysis and to plan and take action (Chambers R. 1992).

Climate Resilient Livelihood Kit is the provision of livelihood project to qualified farm families based on the various assessments conducted.  

The provision will strictly adhere to the guidelines set by the technical working team such as Village-Level Coco Coir Processing Plant; Village-Level Organic Fertilizer Production Plant; Coco-Based Cacao and Ube Production; Goat Raising and Small-scale Fish Processing.

The Climate Resilient Technology Training part is composed of several capacity-building activities to support the livelihood projects, while Knowledge Management involves the development of information, education and communication materials in relation to the project and Result Evaluation is the packaging of the overall result of the project.

The Quezon pilot community for the CRA project was formally transferred to LGU management last Dec. 1 in simple turn-over rites. (PNA)

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