FAO $3m grant to aid 10,475 farmers in Philippines
“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 one of the most important programmes of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the country,” José Luis Fernández, FAO representative in the Philippines, said.
The project, which will operate until October 2017, aims to restart agricultural livelihoods and improve the coping abilities and resilience of smallholders in 5 municipalities.
The distribution of farm and fisheries inputs is currently underway. This 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, the FAO is also conducting climate-smart farmer field schools and other livelihood skills training, 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 with the kind of support that the government of New Zealand is enabling us to deliver,” Fernández added.
source: rappler.com
