Background of the project
Smallholder farmers in the Philippines have always been vulnerable to extreme weather events and
year-to-year climate variability due to the geographical position of the country and the impacts of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle. Farming is sensitive to climate events and exposed to a wide range climate risks including drought and dry spells, heat events, advance or delay in the onsets of rainy season, typhoons, and long-term changes in rainfall and temperature patterns. Furthermore, resilient agriculture looks for opportunities from climate events as well as minimizes the risks it may cause. At the heart of this is providing reliable and timely climate information to farmers and ensuring their appropriate use of climate knowledge to reduce their vulnerability and enhance resilience.
The Philippine Government through the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) has supported the focus on urban regions regarding disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change
adaptation (CCA) but request some works in rural areas. Funded by the Australian Government through
the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the current project will partly fill
this gap. Its overall aim is to improve the exchange of information between PAGASA and key decision
makers involved in managing climate and weather risk of small holder farmers to improve disaster risk
management.
Objectives:
- Understand current status of DRR and CCA for smallholder farming in case study regions by reviewing literature, programs, and projects.
- Analyze the potential and realized value of weather and climate forecasts for at least nine climatically sensitive decisions
- Pilot communication material and scale up the findings to other LGUs and farming groups
Expected outputs:
- Annotated bibliography of past and current R&DE on climate and weather impacts on PH agriculture (with special emphasis on cases on farming systems).
- Identification and utilization of various sources of information.
- Ranking of enabling factors and barriers to effective use.
- Decision context, decision trees, and spreadsheet-based solved decision.
- Observations and reflections on the limits of the applicability of climate information.
- Outline of possible use of climate information in PH agriculture decision-making.
- Recommended solutions to specific barriers identified in the 6 decisions.
Tested training modules available online.