In response to climate change and unpredictable weather conditions, Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office One (DA-RFO1) Adaptation and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA) Program invited over 50 LGUs and representatives for the Agro-Climatic Advisory Portal (ACAP) —a website designed to deliver agro-climatic advisory to farmers for the initiative of avoiding, adapting, and recovering from climate change effects— during the two-day trainings on September 24-25, 2024, at Aloha 808 Resort Hotel, Cabungaan, Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, and September 26-27, 2024 at Hotel Linda, Vigan City, Ilocos Sur.

With the rampant effects of climate change, Ms. Jennifer Milo of DA-RFO1 AMIA emphasized the need to use tools and adaptation of technologies in farming such as the Climate Risk Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA) and Agro-Climatic Advisory Portal (ACAP) as well as building farmer clusters for an organized approach, stating, “𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘶𝘱 𝘈𝘔𝘐𝘈 𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴’ 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦𝘴.”

The 𝗔𝗴𝗿𝗼-𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗹 (𝗔𝗖𝗔𝗣) is a website that seeks to disseminate agro-climatic advisory to farmers and fisherfolk with ease. Connected to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAG-ASA), the portal uses the ever-changing weather and climate as basis for making outlooks for growing crops. This is initiated by the DA-AMIA with the help of the University of Los Baños Foundation Incorporated (UPLBFI) and Alliance Bioversity & CIAT.

This portal includes features and services such as the 10-day farm weather out look and advisory that uses the PAG-ASA’s weather forecasts, tropical cyclones and bulletin, cyclone information, droughts, and rainfall forecasts; cropping calendars that shows crop activity from preparation stage to maturity; Seasonal recommendations in the six-month period like climate risks and impact outlooks; and additionally, the convenience of exporting said information to PDF files in order to be printed and disseminated to interested farmers. Farmers and individuals may also register for SMS notifications.

The training is part of the initiative of AMIA in creating AMIA villages that are climate resilient, aligning to its goals in mitigating climate change through the avoid, adapt, and recover initiative. Namely, for farmer cooperatives and associations to avoid costly mistakes, adapt to new technologies, and easily recover from disaster.

The last stop for the training workshops will be at J & V, City of San Fernando, La Union for the LGUs of La Union with the tentative dates of October 8-9, 2024.

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗖𝗔𝗣 𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗔 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺, 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁:

Adaptation & Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA) Program

Department of Agriculture – Regional Field Office 1

: Aguila Road, Sevilla, City of San Fernando, La Union, Philippines

: +63 (72) 242-1045 local 15

: amia@ilocos.da.gov.ph