Pattaya, Thailand – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has committed to enhance collaboration among its member-states in the promotion for the resiliency of food crops, particularly rice, to climate change.
ASEAN made this commitment at a conference held recently in Pattaya, Thailand.
Thailand had earlier proposed the promotion of crop resilience to adverse climate, which was subsequently adopted by the ASEAN Technical Working Group on Agriculture and Research Development (ATWGARD)
To mitigate the threats of climate change in the region, conference participants agreed to advance the ASEAN Integrated Food Security and ASEAN Multi-Sectoral Framework on Climate Change: Agriculture and Forestry towards Food Security programs
Gemany’s Deutsche Gesellschaft for Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH funds the activities through the German-ASEAN Program on Response to Climate Change (GAP-CC).
GAP-CC, in turn, has commissioned Philippine government-hosted SEARCA to carry out the project among seven ASEAN member-states.
The conference brought together resource persons commissioned by SEARCA to conduct their case studies on climate change impacts for the selected sectors.
SEARCA, based in the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB), is an inter-government treaty body founded in 1965 to promote cooperation among Southeast Asian nations in the fields of science, education, and culture.
SEARCA Director Gil C. Saguiguit Jr. reported that ATWGARD focal persons for Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam have also been designated to support the conduct of the national case studies.
The workshop was chaired by Thailand-DoA Deputy Director General Suwit Chaikiattiyos while Dr. Felino Lansigan of UPLB serves as the project’s Regional Agricultural Value Chain/Climate Resilience expert.
Source: Manila Bulletin
23 Mar 2014
