Makati City, Philippines - Rice
farmers, particularly smallholder farmers, are vulnerable to the risks of
drought, flooding, and pest outbreaks. Generating rice
production forecasts, assessing the impact of disasters on the rice crop, and revealing the incidence of pests and disease are immensely valuable in planning mitigation
and intervention strategies for supporting food security in the face of increasingly unpredictable weather patterns due to climate
change.
These are the key points made
by Dr. Alice Laborte, IRRI geographical information system specialist, at the
forum on forecast-based emergency preparedness for climate risks. The forum is
the first conference of the FoRECAST (Food Resilency in Emergencies and Climate
Change Adaptation Systems Tracking) project of the World Food Programme
(WFP)-Philippines.
“Accurate, timely, and
detailed information enables policymakers, disaster response teams, crop
insurance providers, researchers, and other stakeholders to assess the current and
forthcoming status of the rice crop,” explained Laborte, who also leads the
Philippine Rice Information System (PRISM) project at IRRI. PRISM is a joint
project of the Philippine Department of Agriculture, Philippine Rice Research
Institute, sarmap, and IRRI.
“They need this information to act and adjust accordingly,” Laborte said. In fact, Philippine Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala recently sought the assistance of PRISM
in assessing rice fields affected by Typhoon Lando (international name: Koppu)
using satellite images over Central Luzon.
Remote sensing-based
Information and Insurance for Crops in Emerging economies (RIICE), another
project at IRRI, also uses radar-based remote sensing technologies for
observation and forecasting in selected parts of Asia to provide governments
and other organizations with timely information on rice crop area and production
for planning and responding to natural catastrophes. RIICE,
funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, is a collaborative initiative of IRRI, sarmap, Allianz, and GIZ.
“This forum is a venue for
sharing scientific data, policies, and models for climate change adaptation,
disaster resilience, and food and nutrition security, as well as understanding
capacities and links between local and national early warning systems,” explained Praveen Agrawal, representative and country director of UN WFP-Philippines.
The forum was held on 26
November in Makati City. It was attended by representatives from Philippine
national and regional line agencies, academic and scientific/research
institutions that can provide technical knowledge on forecasting and early
warning systems, and provincial governments involved in the development and
implementation of early warning standard operating procedures.
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