Pinuno Party-list Rep. Howard Guintu on Thursday pushed for the use of “crop climate calendars” throughout the country to boost the climate change agenda of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
“Tulad ni Pangulong Marcos, naniniwala tayo na ang economic agenda ay kailangang mag-conform sa ating climate change agenda. Kaya naman upang matugunan ang epekto ng climate change sa ating agrikultura ay nanawagan tayo agarang pagpasa ng ating Climate-Resilient Agriculture Act (Like President Marcos, we believe that our economic agenda needs to conform with the climate change agenda. That’s why to address its effects to our agriculture, we are calling for the immediate passage of [our proposed] Climate-Resilient Agriculture Act,” he said.
The proposed measure, House Bill No. 4418 filed by Guintu, seeks to establish the use of crop climate calendars tailor-made for each specific locality or community.
It also seeks to provide regular training and capacity-building for farmers in the practice of climate-sensitive decision-making.
“The crop climate calendars are visual tools that present the phenology or cycle and cultivation practices of a crop against the timeline of the cropping season. It also contains information on weather and climate states that occur in the locality, along with the risks faced by the crop per growing stage,” he said.
In coordination with municipal, city, and provincial agriculturists, the bill mandates the Department of Agriculture (DA) to implement a continuing program to formulate, use and interpret crop climate calendars to be distributed for free to all farmers and farmer’s organizations.
The DA, through the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), is also mandated to provide regular appropriate training and capacity-building for farmer’s organizations in the practice of climate-sensitive decision-making and the use of relevant tools and applications.
Climate-sensitive decision-making refers to decisions that hinge on weather and climate states with outcomes and decisions that vary depending on prevailing weather phenomena.
Under the bill, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) is tasked to provide regular and up-to-date localized weather and climate information to municipal, city, and provincial agriculturist’s offices and directly to the farmers themselves through all available means of communication and information dissemination, including the internet, social media, television, and radio.
“The severe impacts of climate change in the country pose a huge threat to the agriculture sector, and consequently, food security if not addressed urgently,” Guintu said.
He added that to address the effects of climate change in the agriculture sector, the government through the DA must capitalize on the fast-paced development of new and modern technology to come up with practices and innovations adaptive to climate change.
In his second SONA on July 24, Marcos noted that “the building blocks of progressive, livable and sustainable communities will never be complete without appropriate and responsible action to mitigate and to adapt to the effects of climate change.”
“We can never lose sight of our responsibility to the future. The economic agenda cannot and will not ever be incompatible with our climate change agenda,” Guintu quoted the President as saying, emphasizing that important criterion in the government’s integral national policies, in planning, decision-making, up to the implementation of programs. (PNA)
