ILO joins fight against El Niño

WITH almost one-half of the Filipino labor force engaged in agriculture farmers all over the country are facing the effects of El Niño or long dry spells. Farms are drying up due to climate change which can have a huge impact on the incomes of farmers.

But now help is at hand for the beleaguered farming community through the International Labor Organization (ILO) which has highlighted the need for innovative ways to avoid further damage on crops and incomes of farmers.

The ILO component of the United Nations Climate Change Adaptation has chosen four priority demonstration sites in Agusan del Norte province to try out innovative risk transfer mechanisms that would help farmers weather the effects of El Niño.

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed to this effect between the municipalities of Jabonga, RTR, Buenavista and Las Nieves with the ILO and its implementing partners—the Department of Labor & Employment (DOLE), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the Province of Agusan del Norte.

The municipalities are among the areas largely dependent on agriculture but confront the effects of climate change from drying farms to rising floods.

ILO Project Manager Lurraine Baybay Villacorta said the selection was made by the Project Advisory Committee (PAC) based on results of the baseline study and approved criteria.

The four LGUs—Jabonga, RTR, Buenavista and Las Nieves, as shown by the baseline study, contribute significantly to the over-all provincial agricultural production. At the same time, they possess unique environmental and locational characteristics including exposure to extreme events, access to pertinent productive and financial resources needed by the farming populations.

These LGUs were selected on the basis of agricultural production, general environmental condition and climatic risk exposure, access to support institutions and availability and access to financing institutions.

On the same occasion, another MOU was signed between the ILO and DTI-Caraga to establish cooperation on key project activities particularly related to the design of options for economic diversification and development of the innovative financing schemes including the conduct of the comprehensive value chain analysis and market research.

Project Manager Villacorta explained that with the final selection, the project can now focus its efforts in studying more closely the farming communities and assessing the vulnerabilities and possible impact of climate change in selected areas. From such studies, climate change adaptation options supporting economic diversification as well as innovative financing schemes and an insurance fund can be developed and tested by end of 2010.

It is expected, however, that the approaches and schemes to be tested in these areas can be replicated not only in the entire province or region but can be upscaled nationwide.

Agusan del Norte is one of the five demonstration sites in the country for the climate change project under the UN Millennium Development Goals Fund supported by the Spanish Government. The demonstration projects are part of a bigger project dubbed “Strengthening the Philippines’ Institutional Capacity to Adapt to Climate Change.”

As a capacity building project, the ILO and its partners, DOLE, DTI and the Province of Agusan del Norte will endeavor to conduct learning events among LGU officials on Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessments, Farming Value Chains and other capability building activities.

rjottings@yahoo.com –RANDOM JOTTINGS, MAnila Times