Author : Lara, Rey B.

Summary : The municipality of Buhi is highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. This research study confirms that climate change already had an impact on the municipality, as evidenced by increasing mean temperature, changing precipitation patterns, and increasing frequency and growing intensity of extreme weather events. Unprotected low-lying farmland areas in the municipality of Buhi area frequently devastated by floods, which redound to massive loss of agriculture production and wrought subsequent damage to farm infrastructure are the most sensitive to drought. The study determines the degree of vulnerability of the agricultural production systems, identifies, evaluates and characterizes farmers adaptation strategies in response to climate change impacts, recommends suitable and location-specific farm level technology options, and develops food security policy framework that can be utilized by policy and decision makers in outlining overarching policies to reduce adaptation deficits and increase the resilience of agriculture communities. The vulnerability assessment indicates that the occurrences of floods was seen in all stages of crop production, and considered the most hazardous climatic variable, as it received more mention and higher ratings during the survey conducted with the farmers. The absence of occasional rains during the dry season appears to be the main climatic hazard for livestock, depriving them of water and fresh shoots from grasses and shrubs. The study shows that the a wide range of adaptation measures are already being applied. Farmers have already made significant efforts to implement adaptation measures to minimize the impact of climate change. However, most adaptation measures employed by the farmers have been reactive rather than protective; autonomous rather than well-planned; and largely developed to address climate variability and weather extremes. Because climate change has a negative impact on agricultural production systems, the study suggest that achieving the municipality's food security targets, in the light of climate variability and weather extremes, definitely require greater investments in agricultural productivity. Key areas for increased investments include: the provision of climate responsive production support services, rural roads, information technologies, market support, extension services, better climate information, early warning systems, efficient irrigation systems, climate resilient post-harvest facilities and innovative risk-sharing instruments such as index-based insurance schemes.