Regional

PH is losing farmers in the era of climate change, study says

May. 23, 2019 KATH M. CORTEZ

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The number of farmers in Davao City is decreasing in the midst of high
demands on crop production for local and international consumption.

This was the finding of the recent study conducted by the Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU) on climate
resilient agriculture in Mindanao.

AdDU’s University Research Council (URC) conducted the research through Geo-mapping and Land
Suitability Assessment for Climate Change resilient communities to identify possible areas in Mindanao for
agricultural expansion.

The result also said that farmers allow or in some cases, forced to let companies rent their land for
plantation use.

In an interview, Leo XL Fuentes, MASIPAG Mindanao Regional Coordinator told Davao Today that the
research tends to send a message that the agricultural sector alone has a big contribution on the worsening
effect of climate change.

Fuentes identified the effort to industrialize the agricultural sector through the expansion of various
plantations of export goods such as banana, pineapple, palm oil, and papaya that is reported to have used
different kinds of chemicals that are harmful for humans and the environment.

For instance, Fuentes mentioned that rice farmers are now suffering the impact of the rise of temperature
as they lost approximately 12 sacks of rice harvest per hectare. In addition, farmers also lost huge amount
of their crops during rainy season as heavy rains also results in flooding and massive erosion to their
farmlands.

“These extreme weather events made our farmers become poorer and worst, buried in debt,” Fuentes said.

This situation caused farmers to either sell or pawn their land for them to survive.

He also stressed that the effect of climate change to the agricultural sector has worsened the situation

especially that the government has no concrete action and support for sustainable agriculture in the

country.

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