Iloilo farmers to learn climate forecasting
As the government deals with erratic changes in weather condition that tend to affect agricultural production, farmers in Iloilo province are starting to learn climate forecasting in order to deal with risks in agriculture brought by climatic factors.
Iloilo Asst. Provincial Agriculturist Dr. Ildefonso Toledo said that the province is piloting a Climate Field School for farmers in Iloilo, with the municipality of Dumangas as the host community, involving about 25 farmers per barangay.
Toledo also said that the Farmers Climate Field School is anchored on the successful Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Farmers Field School which is implemented in many areas in the province. The Module on Climate Forecast Applications for Managing Climate Risks in Agriculture will be incorporated in the Farmers Field School as a learning technology supported by the USAID-Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, based in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Climate Field School is set to start at the onset of the first cropping season this June right in the farms of farmer-participants. The module includes lecture and hands on, every weekend, starting with land preparation, sowing, and following all the stages in production.
The farmers are primarily expected to learn to forecast weather which will be their basis on what crops to plant in their area, what conditions are most likely to occur, such that they can be equipped to handle the effects of these on their activities.
Toledo said that the province of Iloilo has no distinct climate and no two areas have similar patterns. The Climate Field School seeks to help farmers identify the climatic pattern in an area for them to determine how agricultural productivity can be enhanced, given a climatic condition.
Meanwhile, Malacanang said that top government economic and agricultural managers are banking on the Filipino people to keep enterprise and growth up despite calamities and adverse changes in the physical environment.
(PIA 6/ESS)