Advocates propose ‘climate sensitive’ budget for agriculture

ORGANIC farming advocates have called on the Department of Agriculture to integrate disaster preparedness and risk reduction by funding programs that will make farming resilient to natural calamities. Lawyer Efren Moncupa, lead convenor of Go Organic! Philippines said the government should “allocate adequate fund for disaster preparedness, to reduce risk of losing billions of pesos worth of investment in the agriculture sector.”

“Otherwise, our economy will continue to be vulnerable to natural calamities,” he added.

La Liga Policy Institute (LLPI) Managing Director Roland Cabigas, also a convenor of Go Organic!, said timely government intervention to protect the interest of the agriculture sector, particularly the resource-poor farmers is needed, to promote the sector’s continued growth and development.

Damages brought about by tropical storm Ondoy and Typhoon Pepeng to agriculture have reached P12 billion, according to the Agriculture department.

A member of the Alternative Budget Initiative, a consortium of nongovernment organizations actively engaging the government in the budget process, LLPI is proposing an increased budget for the Agriculture department to make the 2010 budget “climate sensitive.”

The proposed increase covers an additional P500 million for capacity building for farmers on organic agriculture and biodynamic farming, P50 million for research, development and piloting of climate change-resilient crops and livestock, and P100 million for research, development and piloting of sustainable farming systems.

“If we need to redesign farming to prevent huge economic losses because of drought and typhoons, then we should and only through timely government intervention such as providing adequate fund can address this climate change challenge,” Cabigas said. –Ira Karen Apanay, Manila Times