Editorial: Dealing with climate change
The early onset of the rainy season is a clear sign that there is a disturbance in the weather. Such phenomena are the result of climate change, which is defined as an increase in average global temperatures. This is said to be due to natural events and human activities like greenhouse gas emissions. Rich nations that have emitted climate changing pollution for centuries are mostly responsible for global warming. Historically, industrialized countries are responsible for 80 percent of the carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere. But poor countries bear the brunt of global warming.
In one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of global warning, the effects of climate change on agriculture are many and devastating.
Too much or too little rain, and there is less harvest. During this year's dry season, farmers in Oriental Mindoro suffered enormous yield losses that they believe was due to climate change. Their rice harvest was halved, to as low as two tones per hectare due to unpredictable weather. The increased possibility for droughts and floods could lead to less crops, which means less income and food for farmers who are already going hungry.
In Negros, farm workers are caught in chronic hunger as a result of yearly off-milling season or tiempos muertos. During this season, less work is available in sugar plantations making life more miserable for the hungry farm workers and their families. Climate change is one of the reasons behind this year's longer tiempos muertos, which started in January and is expected to last until November.
During the 1st Philippine National Grassroots Conference on Climate Change organized by the Philippine Climate Watch Alliance held last April, rural community organizations said that they were the most affected, but also the least informed. Already lacking access to resources such as land, water and seeds, rural communities also do not have access to technology that will help them to adapt to the impact of climate change.
The Philippine government is a signatory of the Kyoto protocol, where countries pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Yet it lacks genuine policies and programs to mitigate climate change and help communities adapt to its impacts. The Arroyo administration promotes and pursues globalization-oriented policies in strategic sectors, such as energy, mining, forestry, agriculture and trade which will render it more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. While hunger is increasing, the government is promoting massive biofuel production that endangers food security and agricultural self-sufficiency. It passed the Biofuels Act, which will lead to widespread conversion of agricultural land to grow biofuels.
In order to address the problems posed by climate change, PNFSP challenges the government prioritize climate change adaptation measures to prepare the local communities for the possible impacts of climate change, such as improving water supplies in rural areas.
Systematic and widespread education and public information on climate change and its effects needs to be undertaken in the countryside, where the effects of global warming are most felt.
There is also a need to lobby against laws that will only exacerbate the impact of climate change on the people, such as the Mining Act. This law opens up more land to mining, including agricultural land. The mining industry leads to the pollution of rivers and watersheds with toxic metals, which reduces water supply and irrigation.
As the unity statement of national conference on climate change states, any genuine move to resolve the problem of global warming must critically recognize and address the larger socio-economic context in which it occurs. The decisions and actions which the government and the international community will make should primarily consider and uphold the interest and welfare of the environment and the majority of our people. Food security must be ensured for poor people especially farmers and peasants in the countryside.
According to Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura, a national partner of PNFSP, sustainable agriculture lessens agriculture carbon emission because resource poor farmers producing mostly for local markets have less emissions than large-scale, highly mechanized, export oriented agriculture.
Local production and consumption also cuts long travel, support short supply chains and promotes food sovereignty and security by giving farmers control over their produce.
As an advocate of sustainable agriculture, the PNFSP is helping communities in Isabela, Masbate and Panay study and implement appropriate technology programs such as irrigation projects and corn grinders. PNFSP member organizations also practice organic farming, which emits less harmful gases into the atmosphere.
While the effects of climate change are already being felt, the PNFSP, along with its member organizations all over the country, continues to implement programs that will help mitigate the impact of global warming. It opposes the prevalent profit-oriented agriculture system that is tied to corporate interests and exacerbates climate change. PNFSP promotes sustainable agriculture that lessens the impact of global warming and prioritizes food security for the people.
PNFSP promotes agricultural self-sufficiency, instead of the government's free-market orientation geared towards exporting food products like bananas while importing staples such as rice.
PNFSP calls on transnational companies to admit to the overuse of resources and to their part in causing climate change. Large corporations need to adapt their operations in order to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
The network also challenges the government to support people-led initiatives in adapting to climate change such as agroforestry and provide services to farmers that will help them to cope with the effects of global warming.