Los Baños, Laguna - A European Commission-funded project in support of food production activities of indigenous peoples, farmers, and fisherfolk in six provinces in the country has been launched.

Dr. Gil C. Saguiguit, Jr., SEARCA Director, shakes hands with Hon. Josephine Ramirez-Sato, Governor of Occidental Mindoro, after the MOA signing held on 3 February 2010 on an EC-funded project Focused-Food Production Assistance to Vulnerable Sectors.

The project will be implemented by the Los Baños-based, government hosted Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEAMEO-SEARCA), which is also providing a counterpart fund.

SEARCA is one of the 19 "centers of excellence" of SEAMEO, an inter-government treaty organization founded in 1965 to foster cooperation among Southeast Asian nations in the fields of education, science, and culture.

The food assistance program is being undertaken in cooperation with the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development (CIRAD) and the provincial governments of Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Misamis Occidental, and Misamis Oriental.

Also involved are the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), Department of Agriculture (DA), DA-Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), and the Malaysia-based WorldFish Center (WFC).

The project was launched last Feb. 3 at a program held at the Richmonde Hotel in Pasig City.

During the launching ceremony, SEARCA signed separate memoranda of agreement (MOA) with the six provincial governments and CIRAD stating their "declaration of partnership" in the implementation of the project. Witnesses were representatives of the European Union (EU) delegation in the Philippines and the participating agencies.

Signatories to the MOA were SEARCA Director Dr. Gil C. Saguiguit, Jr., Pierre Morissen of CIRAD, and Governors namely Josephine Ramirez-Sato of Occidental Mindoro, Arman Panaligan of Oriental Mindoro, Jesus Typoco, Jr. of Camarines Norte, Luis Raymond Villafuerte, Jr. of Camarines Sur, Loreto Leo Ocampos of Misamis Occidental and Oscar Moreno of Misamis Oriental.

Alistair MacDonald, head of the EU Delegation in the Philippines, was represented in the project's launching ceremony by Raffaella Bourdon, EU Food Facility program manager.

The project generally aims "to help reduce poverty, improve the well-being of the farmers, and ensure their access to safe food, particularly the vulnerable ones." It covers upland, lowland, and coastal areas in 31 towns and five cities in the six provinces.

Specifically, the project aims to increase rice production of small farmers; enhance productivity of upland agriculture through crop diversification; increase aquaculture yield in coastal and inland waters; identify and document indigenous practices used by farmers and fisherfolk that help conserve resources; and understand the risks and effects of climate change, and develop strategies and plan to help reduce its impacts especially on agricultural production.

People’s organizations in the project areas shall serve as focal groups that will assist the project beneficiaries (indigenous peoples, farmers, fisherfolks).

In his message at the project's launching, SEARCA Director Saguiguit said that the undertaking will "assist the most vulnerable sectors in the pursuit of food security amidst the challenge of current and emerging concerns affecting agricultural production."

These include environmental concerns, notably climate change; socioeconomic circumstances such as prevalence of poverty, lack of livelihood opportunities, inadequate access to government support services, and rural and production infrastructures.

Dr. Saguiguit said that the project will count on the expertise and support of CIRAD, the French government’s leading scientific R&D agency whose operations are worldwide and has in its stable the world’s leading scientists.

Technical and related support will also be provided by NCIP, DA, DA-PhilRice, and Worldfish Center, whose Philippine office is now based at SEARCA.

The local government units of the six provinces thanked the European Commission, SEARCA, and the collaborating agencies for choosing their provinces as project beneficiaries. They also committed their full support to the project.