The Provincial Core Planning Teams (PCPT) from Aurora, Nueva Ecija, and Tarlac underwent a workshop on the climate risks integration in the preparation of the Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) for aromatic and pigmented rice on August 10-12, 2022 in Baler, Aurora.

Spearheaded by the Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) Regional Project Coordination Office 3 (RPCO 3) I-PLAN Component with their counterparts from the National Project Support Office (NPCO) and North Luzon Project Support Office (PSO), the said activity aims to capacitate and strategically guide the PCPTs in adopting the enhanced climate risk and resilience criteria in updating their respective CIPs for aromatic and pigmented rice.

“The integration of the climate considerations through the use of the Climate Risk Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA) output is very relevant especially in these recent times that we are experiencing severe natural disasters.”, said the RPCO 3 I-PLAN Component Head Noli C. Sambo on the importance of identifying and analyzing the major risks of the involved provinces.

The CRVA is a decision-support tool by the DA Adaptation and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture Program (AMIA) which was prepared by analyzing three main indices: exposure to significant climate variations, climate suitability of crops, and adaptive capacity of a system to adjust to climate change.  It will be used to inform and guide the PCPTs on geographic areas that are in most need of interventions and on what package of interventions are needed by addressing municipality-level climate risks.

At the end of the workshop, participants presented the updated CIP for aromatic and pigmented rice of their respective provinces using the application of climate risk and resilience criteria. (Ram Bautista, InfoACE RPCO 3)

AMIA Focal Person Eduviges Pelayo discusses the definition and purpose of the CRVA output.

RPCO 3 I-PLAN Component Head Noli C. Sambo emphasizes the importance of the integration of climate risks into the PCIP.

PRDP staff from NPCO, North Luzon PSO, and RPCO with the PCPT representatives from Aurora, Nueva, Ecija, and Tarlac