Agri-10 hosts AMIA year-end assessment

 

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — The Department of Agriculture – Regional Field Office 10 (DA-RFO 10) hosted the 2024 Yearend Assessment of the Adaptation and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA) program from December 3 to 6, here.

Organized by the DA Climate Resilient Agriculture Office (CRAO) and DA-10 through its AMIA team, the gathering served as a platform for evaluating the program’s progress, exchanging knowledge on various aspects of AMIA implementation, and sharing ongoing climate-resilient agriculture (CRA) initiatives among AMIA regional focal persons and teams.

In his message, DA-10 Regional Executive Director Jose Apollo Y. Pacamalan lauded the success of the AMIA program, noting its efforts of helping farmers to counter the effects of climate change and weather through climate-resilient agriculture.

Citing the use of different CRAs such as but not limited to stress tolerant crop varieties, relay and rotational cropping systems, irrigation, water harvesting, soil conservation, and crop diversification, among others, the agri exec pins his hopes that the farmers trained by the program will go beyond capacitation and translate these learnings in their farms—growing, harvesting, processing and marketing more, and result to the local government units’ integration of AMIA initiatives into their development plans.

He also underscored the adoption of digitalization as embodied in the Adapting Philippine Agriculture to Climate Change (APA) project, which provides real-time data to enhance information systems, further urging for the refinement of data collections in the next phase, aligning them with clear and measurable success indicators.

For her part, CRAO Director, Alicia G. Ilaga stressed the program’s strides, which includes its advocacy campaigns, the AMIA members’ recognition at the Philippine Resilience Awards, the AMIA’s involvement in COP29, an initiative to help marginal farmers with sustainable solutions, among other concerns.

She likewise enjoined the attendees to continue working together to strengthen the agricultural sector amid the challenges on climate change toward a more resilient and prosperous Philippines.

During the assessment, DA-10 was also recognized for clinching third place for its AMIA team’s financial performance in terms of obligation, at the same time received a special award for initiation and organizing the first-ever AMIA Congress in the country.

Also in attendance to receive the honor is Climate Change-AMIA focal person, Carmelito R. Lapoot, along with the program staff.# (MAC/Photos supplied)