LOS BAÑOS, Philippines – GIZ, SEARCA and DA-BAR conducted the Second Philippine National Consultative Meeting for the ASEAN Network on Promoting Climate Resilience of Rice and Other Crops on 14 April 2014 at the Sam Arng Srinilta Room at the SEARCA Headquarters. The meeting aimed to present the initial findings and outputs of the case study on climate change related threats and impacts, as well as best practices on climate change adaptation, focusing on rice and maize in the Philippines.
Funded by the ASEAN-German Programme on Response to Climate Change (GAP-CC)/Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the consultative meeting is one of the key activities at the national level to support the regional initiatives of the ASEAN Technical Working Group in Agriculture and Research Development (ATWGARD).
Dr. Gil C. Saguiguit, Jr., SEARCA Director, welcomed the participants to the meeting. In his opening remarks, Dr. Saguiguit underscored climate change as a major threat to the region’s agriculture and food sector, and highlighted the importance of regional strategies and policies that are well-coordinated and directed towards addressing the effects of climate change in the agriculture sector.