BAR leads in setting R&D program to fight climate change
The Philippines is one of the top 12 countries at highest risk to climate change according to The World Bank. Among the five main threats arising from climate change — droughts, floods, storms, rising sea levels, and greater uncertainty in agriculture —the Philippines leads the list of nations in most danger of facing frequent and more intense storms. Thus, given this alarming scenario, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has been working double time with other partner-agencies in seeking ways to abate the anticipated negative impact of climate change.
In response to Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap’s urgent call on “weather-proofing” the farm and fisheries sector to enable the country to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change, the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR), in collaboration with experts from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), UP Diliman, Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (DOST-PAGASA), Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), and DA-Bureau of Soils and Water Management (DA-BSWM), led in the crafting of the Research and Development (R&D) Program on Climate Change.
The program was presented by Dr. Ma. Victoria D. Espaldon, dean of the School of Environmental Science and Management (SESAM), UPLB during the BAR activity, “Stakeholders’ Consultation Workshop for Crafting the RDE Agenda and Programs for 2011-2015” in Tagaytay City .
“Given the complexity and magnitude of climate change, there is a need for a focused research effort to fully understand the drivers of climate change and provide options to reduce its impacts,” said BAR Director Nicomedes Eleazar. He stressed that with an effective R&D program on climate change that is supported with economic analysis, the agriculture sector will be able to identify the most cost-effective measures to mitigate climate change. “We need research to predict climate-related changes, both at national and regional levels, so that we can identify and take measures that will enable us to adapt to them as well as facilitate the formulation of practical policy objectives to support the sustainability of the program” he added.
According to Dr. Espaldon, the R&D Program on Climate Change aims to generate technologies for the mitigation and adaptation to climate change and improve the adaptive capacity of farmers and fisherfolk by providing relevant technologies and information. Through the program, BAR and its partners hope to breed plants/animals/fishery resources that are more resilient to climate variability, assess the vulnerability of aquatic and marine resource to climate change, and promote cost-effective alternatives to fossil fuel use in agriculture .
The program specified several priority researchable areas which were categorized as short- and long-term adaptation strategies, and the short- and long-term mitigation strategies.
Dr. Espaldon identified 10 priority researchable areas under the short-term adaptation strategies. These included: 1) documentation of indigenous knowledge, 2) promotion and dissemination mechanisms of soil and water conservation, 3) development and promotion of technologies fro water use efficiency in agriculture , 4) development of an updated dynamic cropping calendar for major crops, 5) localized weather-based early warning system for agricultural production, 6) developing sound methodologies for localized seasonal climate forecast system, 7) establishment of climate change sensitive mariculture zoning system, 8) development of agri-aqua farming systems in inundated areas, 9) promotion of value adding strategies for agricultural produce, and 10) improvement of the Comprehensive Agricultural Land Use Plan incorporating climate change risk information.
For the long-term adaptation strategies, she cited five areas for research. These included 1) selection/breeding of drought-resistant, pest/disease-resistant, and flood-tolerant varieties, 2) knowledge-based crop forecasting using advances in S&T, 3) improved estimation of loss in fish production due to climate change, 4) estimation of carrying capacity of seaweeds and other mariculture commodities under increased temperature, 5) monitoring of ocean acidification, salinity and ocean color, 6) vulnerability mapping in coastal areas/assessment of marine resources/marine protected areas, and 7) changes in spatial distribution and migration patterns of fish.
For the short-term mitigation strategies, five priority researchable areas were identified. These were: 1) assessment of marginal lands/grasslands for expansion of food production using lesser known fruit trees species, 2) implementation of community-based watershed projects, 3) reduction of methane emission from swine farms, 4) management and control of new and resurgent diseases and pathogens of livestock and poultry, and 5) improving capacities by through climate risk assessment and management.
For the long-term strategies, the researchable priority areas include, 1) utilization of agricultural waste and biomass for biofuel production, 2) freshwater production using cost-effective community based hybrid biomass-solar desalination system, 3) assessment of crop quality in different agro-climatic conditions, 4) evaluation of agricultural management practices for soil carbon sequestration and mitigation of greenhouse gases in long-term crop protection under upland agro-ecosystem, and 5) identification of changes in the soil microbial diversity in the lowland, upland, and hilly lands as affected by climate change. ### (Rita T. dela Cruz, DA-BAR)
