11. Climate-Resilient Agriculture Assessment, Targeting and Prioritization for the Adaptation, and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA) in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines

The research project, “Climate-Resilient Agri-fisheries (CRA) Assessment, Targeting & Prioritization for the Adaptation and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA)” in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) contributes to the national government’s agenda of addressing climate change threats in the country’s agriculture sector. The major outputs include the Climate-Resilient Agri-fisheries (CRA) for the assessment of traditional and CRA cropping practices used by the farmers through cost-benefit analysis (CBA); and climate risk vulnerability assessment (CRVA) to determine the sensitivity and vulnerability assessment of crops of the province of Benguet. The CRVA assessment result showed that most of the municipalities in Benguet were classified as high to very high in terms of vulnerability to climate change based on their adaptive capacity, sensitivity of crops to the different climatic variables (temperature and precipitation) and hazards. Technologies identified for adaptation includes improving rainwater harvesting practice of the farmers to increase the yield and income of farmers especially during periods of drought and irregular rainfall. The use of blight-resistant variety Igorota (PO₃) can result in higher yield, cash returns, total returns, returns above cash costs, and returns above total costs. By planting PO₃, farmers significantly reduced their operational costs by about 50%. Effort is also thus needed to integrate the use of PO₃ with the water-saving practices to determine any synergies that could benefit the farmers in the vulnerable sites.