DAVAO CITY – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has called for support to its six-year strategic framework for Mindanao’s agriculture sector.
It said the framework aims to reduce poverty, improve food and nutrition security and support community resilience to climate change.
The Mindanao Strategic Programme for Agriculture and Agribusiness (MSPAA) also serves as “a blueprint of the priorities for technical cooperation in the region”, it added.
The FAP has recently convened members of the donor community as part of its efforts to mobilize resources to fund the implementation of the program.
Jose Luis Fernandez, FAO representative in the Philippines said the agricultural sector in Mindanao has a potential to “drive inclusive growth and sustained peace”.
“With adequate funding support, FAO aims to link the lagging areas of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with more progressive areas through investments in connective infrastructure, human and social capital, while increasing resilience to the impacts of climate change,” said Fernandez.
Fernandez said the MSPAA has been carefully aligned with the government priorities identified in the Mindanao Strategic Development Framework 2010-2020, the Mindanao 2020 Peace and Development Framework, the Bangsamoro Development Plan and the Updated Philippine Development Plan.
In a Philippine Information Agency dispatch, the FAO said all projects under the MSPAA are “designed to increase production and productivity and promote appropriate technologies, including new crop varieties, better livestock breeds and fishery/aquaculture species”.
“These will integrate climate-smart technologies that can respond effectively to climate change impacts and natural disasters,” it said. (davaotoday.com)
