BSU pushing for agri resiliency

THE BENGUET State University will start to come up with policies and recommendations that would assist communities in the municipalities like Itogon which have

suffered the most during the passing of Ompong.

This will also act as a resiliency action plan once typhoons hit the Cordillera region in the future.

BSU President Feliciano Calora Jr. sees the possible program the state university is looking at as a measure in helping affected families and individuals cope from disaster.

“What we can do based on the on studies, is to come up with policies and recommendations in terms of alternative crops and resiliency because after the rains, it is expected that prices of vegetables would be high with the middlemen and not the farmers benefiting. We should look at ways and means at also informing farmers to be resilient farmers,” Calora said.

Agriculture resiliency, according to farmingfirst.org is about equipping farmers to absorb and recover from shocks and stresses to their agricultural production and livelihoods.

“What we can do is to assist them through technical assistance. I think this is one of the role of the Department of Agriculture in providing plants for their rehabilitation and on our end, we can share our expertise based on the needs assessment and social profiling research for the municipality of Itogon. We are trying to see if we can make a study for the different municipalities in Benguet and to partner with them,” Calora explained.

Calora also pointed out impact assessment as a process needed in evaluating the likely environmental impacts of a proposed project or development, taking into account inter-related socio-economic, cultural and humanhealth impacts, both beneficial and adverse.

“Vulnerability and impact assessments are not permanent so you have to do this every time specially considering the intensity of rainfall in our area is getting more intense meaning the volume is increasing, so we cannot rely on an annual vulnerable impact assessment which should be a protocol already,” Calora added.