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[av_heading heading=’Aid for farming, fishing families in Cotabato’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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Friday, February 17, 2017
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FOR the past four decades, the lives and livelihood of farmers and fisherfolk in some areas of Mindanao have been affected by recurrent displacement as a result of sporadic armed clashes.
In fact, the farming and fishing families in Mindanao are no stranger to both natural and human-induced disasters.
During the past five years, typhoons and widespread drought have worsened their struggle.
“Equipping farming and fishing communities with skills, knowledge, and resources to recover from crises, to minimize losses from future disasters, and to eventually rise from poverty, is among the most important programmes of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the country,” said FAO Representative in the Philippines José Luis Fernández.
Through a $3-million grant from the government of New Zealand, FAO is currently supporting the recovery of some 10,475 farming and fishing households in the province of Cotabato.
The project aims to re-start agricultural livelihoods and improve the coping abilities and resilience of smallholders in the municipalities of Aleosan, Kabacan, Midsayap, Pigkawayan, and Pikit.
The distribution of farm and fisheries inputs is currently underway.
The support package includes rice, corn, and vegetable seeds, fruit tree seedlings, fertilizer, drying nets, small farm machinery, post-harvest equipment, hand tools, livestock and poultry, tilapia fingerlings, and gillnets.
To complement these resources, FAO is also conducting climate-smart farmer field schools and other livelihood skills trainings, training on basic planning for disaster risk reduction and management in agriculture including in agriculture hazard and vulnerability mapping and analysis, good practice options and technologies, and early warning and disaster preparedness.
“We have seen how peace, food security, and economic growth are often mutually reinforcing. It is from this perspective that we emphasize the need for communities to be provided the kind of support that the government of New Zealand is enabling us to deliver,” Fernández added.
Reports show that 11 of the 20 poorest provinces are in this primarily agriculture-dependent region.
Some three-fourths of the population of Mindanao or about 12.6 million people fall under Levels 2 (mild chronic food insecurity), 3 (moderate chronic food insecurity), and 4 (severe chronic food insecurity), on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
Of the number, 1.96 million were found to be suffering from severe chronic food insecurity in 2015.
Since 2015, FAO has been working with the national government to address priority agricultural development issues in the region through its Mindanao Strategic Programme for Agriculture and Agribusiness (MSPAA).
While yet to be fully-funded, the MSPAA has served as a framework for the implementation of at least five projects in areas most severely affected by natural and man-made calamities.
FAO’s work in Mindanao is implemented in close partnership with the government through its various agencies.
FAO is also coordinating with the Mindanao Development Authority, and works closely with the Department of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the Bangsamoro Development Agency, Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, and other pertinent agencies and local government units./PN
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