News & Media Releases
Bicol communicators are looking for Filipino seed savers
ALBAY, Philippines — Do you know of seed savers in your community?
A team of Bicolano communicators, called Bicol Umalohokan, is looking for farmers who save seeds. It may be the seed of a rice variety, a vegetable, a staple crop (besides rice), a native tree, or even a mangrove species, and whatnot.
Bicol Umalohokan will feature the seed savers in their campaign, as one of the teams of Umalohokan Fellows with Oscar M. Lopez Center, an organization in the Philippines that has been organizing climate action campaigns through the Balangay Media Project.
Like the town criers (news bearers) of the past, the Umalohokan Fellows put front and center climate actions and solutions. In the 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, it's clear that human activities involving global gas emissions "unequivocally" caused this unprecedented warming of the planet. So are its impacts— from more severe typhoons and droughts, making life harder for the most vulnerable (farmers included) to climate change.
Team Bicol Umalohokan's campaign is about the practice of saving seeds in the Philippines, as a scalable climate solution.
Global food production contributes a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, with crop production for direct human consumption accounts for 21 percent of food emissions, according to Our World In Data summary report which is based on the 2018 study by Joseph Poore and Thomas Nemecek published in Science.
This means tackling climate change beyond clean energy solutions is just as important. As the recent IPCC report reiterates, every degree of warming avoided saves lives.
Help the group find the seed savers in the Philippines by sending a message via their Facebook page, Bicol Umalohokan (www.facebook.com/bicolumaholokan). The team is composed of Solutions Journalism practitioner Mavic Conde, Sustainable Development Goals accelerator Apple Allison, and sustainable tourism consultant Rome Candaza.
#Seeds4Sustainability featuring stories of different Filipino seed savers will be curated and published on www.bicolumaholokan.com.
Bicol communicators are looking for Filipino seed savers
ALBAY, Philippines — Do you know of seed savers in your community?
A team of Bicolano communicators, called Bicol Umalohokan, is looking for farmers who save seeds. It may be the seed of a rice variety, a vegetable, a staple crop (besides rice), a native tree, or even a mangrove species, and whatnot.
Bicol Umalohokan will feature the seed savers in their campaign, as one of the teams of Umalohokan Fellows with Oscar M. Lopez Center, an organization in the Philippines that has been organizing climate action campaigns through the Balangay Media Project.
Like the town criers (news bearers) of the past, the Umalohokan Fellows put front and center climate actions and solutions. In the 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, it's clear that human activities involving global gas emissions "unequivocally" caused this unprecedented warming of the planet. So are its impacts— from more severe typhoons and droughts, making life harder for the most vulnerable (farmers included) to climate change.
Team Bicol Umalohokan's campaign is about the practice of saving seeds in the Philippines, as a scalable climate solution.
Global food production contributes a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, with crop production for direct human consumption accounts for 21 percent of food emissions, according to Our World In Data summary report which is based on the 2018 study by Joseph Poore and Thomas Nemecek published in Science.
This means tackling climate change beyond clean energy solutions is just as important. As the recent IPCC report reiterates, every degree of warming avoided saves lives.
Help the group find the seed savers in the Philippines by sending a message via their Facebook page, Bicol Umalohokan (www.facebook.com/bicolumaholokan). The team is composed of Solutions Journalism practitioner Mavic Conde, Sustainable Development Goals accelerator Apple Allison, and sustainable tourism consultant Rome Candaza.
#Seeds4Sustainability featuring stories of different Filipino seed savers will be curated and published on www.bicolumaholokan.com.
Peasant Month 2021: Message from farmers
Ronald Labrador, who oversees the trial farm at TABI Farm, urges the government to focus on Organic Agriculture Act if it wants to reach the smallholder farmers.
Why Balik Binhi Program is a proactive climate response
October is Peasant Month. What better way of featuring farmers' stories than their solutions to challenges that affect them the most, right?
So, let's talk about the Balik Binhi Program, a seed distribution program of Tarabangan sa Bicol, Incorporated (TABI) which is a trial/research farm in Imalnod, Legazpi City.
Tom Borjal, TABI's coordinator for climate resilience program, said in a field interview that in its early years it was a community formed to provide relief aids to disaster-affected farmers.
"However with typhoons getting more destructive, we realized that rehabilitation isn't enough," Borjal said.
Eventually, it evolved into what it is now: a trial/research farm.
What happens in the trial farm?
"In this trial farm, we test traditional rice varieties. The ten most resilient are picked and recommended to participating farmers," said Ronald Labrador. Then, farmers identify which is best suited for their farming areas through a verification process.
According to Labrador, who has a degree in environmental science and is part of the team of farmers that is in charge of the program, the farm got 90 traditional rice varieties from MASIPAG which is a farmer-led network of thousands of farmers in the Philippines.
As one of MASIPAG's trial farms in the country, its method for agricultural diversification is farmer-led and the mode of knowledge and training diffusion is farmer-to-farmer. This makes co-creation of knowledge and cooperation central to the approach.
Why start with seeds for innovation?
Labrador said that if the government wants to reach the smallholder farmers, it should start with seed distribution. "They should allow farmers to propagate their own seeds into resilient crops by letting them have the control of their food production."
To make that happen, farmers should not be dependent on external farm inputs such as seeds and fertilizers.
The trial farm uses natural fertilizers, from fermented microorganisms that are found in the farm's soil, to snail shells, and other organic materials found around the farm.
The seeds are also accessible to members, so long as they share a portion of their harvest for seed storage that will be used for testing and distributing. Farmers (as adaptors) may try to plant just a portion of their rice field(s) when they're just starting out. They can also choose to breed their crops naturally, like what Pepito Babasa did.
Babasa's rice variety is preferred by many MASIPAG farmers because it can withstand flooding, according to regional coordinator Maria Rowena Buena. In a phone interview, Babasa said that his rice field is next to Bato Lake in Camarines Sur which floods his farm when it overflows.
In February 2021, the trial farm was flooded due to typhoon Auring's heavy rainfall. Five of the rice varieties grown survived, while the others didn't. According to Labrador, those that survived are among the proven and tested to be resilient and have been part of the farm's mass production.
Labrador said that the immediate benefit of this method is that farmers save on farming costs which they can use for other family expenses. Moreover, it prevents farmers from getting burdened by debts just to buy chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Their produce, which are mostly for food consumption, are also not exposed to chemical fertilizers. During the pandemic, some of the harvests from the trial farm were set aside for the 'Mobile Hot Meals,' a feeding activity of one of TABI Farm's partner people's organizations (POs): the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-Bicol.
However transition may not happen overnight. That's why diversification of food sources, like livestock, planting of fruit-bearing trees and vegetables is also part of the approach. A school is also integrated for technical courses related to agriculture for its partner POs.
From a relief community, TABI Farm has evolved into a research farm to help farmers mitigate their vulnerabilities to climate change which makes powerful typhoons more frequent.
In the 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, climate change is undoubtedly caused by human activities involving global greenhouse gas emissions. These include not only burning of fossil fuels but also from chemicals used in food production.
"We have to organize the farmers in a way that they can survive climate disaster impacts through proactive measures," said Borjal.
ALBAY, Philippines — Do you know of seed savers in your community?
A team of Bicolano communicators, called Bicol Umalohokan, is looking for farmers who save seeds. It may be the seed of a rice variety, a vegetable, a staple crop (besides rice), a native tree, or even a mangrove species, and whatnot.
Bicol Umalohokan will feature the seed savers in their campaign, as one of the teams of Umalohokan Fellows with Oscar M. Lopez Center, an organization in the Philippines that has been organizing climate action campaigns through the Balangay Media Project.
Like the town criers (news bearers) of the past, the Umalohokan Fellows put front and center climate actions and solutions. In the 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, it's clear that human activities involving global gas emissions "unequivocally" caused this unprecedented warming of the planet. So are its impacts— from more severe typhoons and droughts, making life harder for the most vulnerable (farmers included) to climate change.
Team Bicol Umalohokan's campaign is about the practice of saving seeds in the Philippines, as a scalable climate solution.
Global food production contributes a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, with crop production for direct human consumption accounts for 21 percent of food emissions, according to Our World In Data summary report which is based on the 2018 study by Joseph Poore and Thomas Nemecek published in Science.
This means tackling climate change beyond clean energy solutions is just as important. As the recent IPCC report reiterates, every degree of warming avoided saves lives.
Help the group find the seed savers in the Philippines by sending a message via their Facebook page, Bicol Umalohokan (www.facebook.com/bicolumaholokan). The team is composed of Solutions Journalism practitioner Mavic Conde, Sustainable Development Goals accelerator Apple Allison, and sustainable tourism consultant Rome Candaza.
#Seeds4Sustainability featuring stories of different Filipino seed savers will be curated and published on www.bicolumaholokan.com.
Ronald Labrador at the TABI trial farm
Tom Borjal, TABI's coordinator for
climate resilience program
Tips on keeping LGU engaged
From socmed to action: Tips from a long-time campaigner
On October 28, Bicol Umalohokan held a Facebook live with Tina Antonio about how to engage with your local government. Antonio has been at the forefront of environment campaigns in La Union through the civil society group La Union Soul.
We listed her top tips below.
Show up. If you want to make a difference, be there at public hearings. "Government officials may not feel the public pressure when no one goes beyond social media," Antonio said.
If you can't make it, show your
support by offering what you can
do instead. Can you help draft a letter or, yes, of all things, consult for the crafting of an ordinance?
One of the results Antonio had seen as a campaigner includes encouraging the public officials of Bauang and the people to craft an ordinance against the DENR's cutting permit for remaining centuries-old trees. "It wasn't just me. It was all of us" [who showed up after that tree cutting in Agoo.]
Report an action made on social media, not the complaint.
Post on social media that an incident report has been filed with a concerned government office. And that you'll keep everyone posted, including the action that the local officials you're hoping to do. "Posting the complaint first could be discouraging instead of building bridges," Antonio said.
Lobby for your community, without ulterior motives.
If you're privileged enough to campaign for your community, make sure it's sincere. They will sense if you're doing it just to earn brownie points. So, Antonio said: get to know who you're trying to help. Be humble. And always remember that there's something to be learned from everyone.
Be data-driven. When creating a project brief, it should be very detailed, complete with the following details:
objective
scope and limitations
manifesto
SWOT Analysis
target markets/partners
action plan
data gathered/research
parameters
and key performance indicators.
This will shed light on what's really the problem, how it can be addressed, and how it can make people care. It will also show that you're there for the long run.
Don't let everybody depend on you. Allow everyone to embrace the movement and own it. This way it will multiply. It should be part of your legacy planning.