A workshop was recently conducted to collaboratively develop a framework for climate change adaptation in important Philippine fruit crops: banana, pineapple, and mango.
Titled, “Developing the framework for climate change adaptation in selected Philippine fruit crops,” the workshop was hosted by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD), through its Forestry and Environment Research Division (FERD).
This initiative is under the international collaborative project, “Addressing climate change impacts on tropical fruit production and strategies of adaptation and mitigation (DFNet III),” which aims to discuss and identify mitigation strategies to address the impact of climate change on the fruit industry smallholders. The project is spearheaded by the Food and Fertilizer Technology Center (FFTC) for the Asian and Pacific Region.
For the Philippine leg of the workshop, three priority fruit crops considered to be high value crops and top export products were pre-identified: banana, pineapple, and mango.
The workshop included the identification of climate risks and impacts in the production of the priority fruit crops as well as the documentation of available climate adaptation practices to mitigate the identified risks and impacts. The framework matrix developed by the Philippine team will be consolidated, packaged, and presented to the FFTC and other DFNet III core group member countries.
About 25 professors, specialists, and experts on climate change and tropical fruits from DOST-PCAARRD’s Crop Research Division (CRD) and Agricultural Resources Management Research Division (ARMRD), Institute of Crop Science (ICRopS) and Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB) under the College of Agriculture and Food Science (CAFS) of the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB), School of Environmental Science and Management (UPLB-SESAM), Department of Agriculture - Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (DA-PCAF), and Climate Resilient Agriculture Office (DA-CRAO).
In the DFNet III project, the core group members from the Philippines are Dr. Bong Salazar, UPLB-ICropS Assistant Professor and Mr. John Benrich Zuniga, Industry Strategic S&T Program (ISP) Manager for Climate Change of FERD, DOST-PCAARRD. Other core group members are experts from Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
The workshop output of the Philippines will also be included in the crafting of a compendium, which will highlight strategies, technologies, and best practices for climate change adaptation and mitigation in selected tropical fruit production for smallholder farmers. The DFNet III project is scheduled to be completed by 2026.