vonjobi: wow, congratulations! kelan ang trip? i hope i'll be around when you come. had a good time with diosa last...
Keith Bacongco: Knowing Nograles and his Big Boss...garapalan na lang talaga.
Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.

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hopeless_race : Lets not just focus sa mga malversation of funds, sa mga overpricing..ating pagtuunan ng atensyon ang diskarte ng mga politiko na umuutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno."Small time" ang ibang pamamaraan ng pangungurakot kumpara sa pag-utang sa gobyerno ng bilyon na tunay ngang masasabing "pinaka big-time" at wala pang sabit.
hopeless_race : Mukhang tikom ang bibig ng lahat pagdating sa diskarte ng mga politiko sa pagutang ng mga bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno na tinatakbuhan. Itong pamamaraan na ito ang tunay na kumakain ng malaking porsyento ng ating national budget batay na din sa sinasabi ng world bank.
hopeless_race : Pakisilip naman po ang mga utang ni Villar sa BSP, ang mga utang nila RAMON JACINTO, RONNIE ZAMORA, JOE DE VENECIA at madami pang ibang mga pulitiko. Iilan lamang yan sa mga nababanggit sa balita na may mga malalaking utang sa gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Nagmimistulang "small time" lamang ang malversation of funds kumpara sa laki ng kinakamal ng mga umuutang sa gobyerno. At ito ay malinaw na natatakbuhan dahil hindi nga naman pwede makulong ang may-ari ng kumpanya sa pagkaka-utang lamang. Tunay na mga tuso at magagaling sa batas itong mga politiko natin. Masasabi ko na malamang lahat ng mga politiko ganito ang diskarte...wala pang kulong.
hopeless_race : PCIJ pkitingnan naman po ang mga gaya ni Villar na my malaking utang sa Gobyerno pero tinatakbuhan. Magtatayo ng kumpanya at uutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno ng walang balak bayaran. Tunay ngang walang nakukulong sa utang...ito ang prinsipyo ginagamit ng mga politiko ntin kaya nakakapagtaka kung san napupunta ang daang bilyong pera ng gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
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jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
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sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
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erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
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guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
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meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
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Climate change to worsen already low food production in Asia — experts

Posted by: Pamela Ordoveza | May 6, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Filed under: Cross Border, Environment Watch, Governance, In the News

EXTREME changes in the weather pose yet another threat to farmers in the wake of the impending rice crisis. This was the warning raised by experts in a recently held conference by the East Asia Rice Working Group (EARWG).

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) climate data chief Lourdes Tibig explained that climate change — global warming in particular — increases the risk of crop damage. This, she said, is one of the major causes of low productivity in agriculture.

Climate change directly results in the higher incidence of flood, drought, and rising temperature, which can later on cause pest infestation. Changes in the weather, Tibig also said, affect water availability and soil fertility, which are both essential in rice production.

According to Dr. Anni Mitin of the Southeast Asian Council for Food Security and Fair Trade (Seacon), decline in crop yield creates a domino effect, which, in the long run, brings more and more people at risk of hunger and food insecurity.

View Dr. Mitin’s presentation on the various adaptation strategies of Asian countries to climate change.

Mitin explained that low harvests reduce the marginal growth domestic product from the agriculture sector, which then causes fluctuations in world market prices and changes in trade systems.

Impacts across Asia

EARWG, a network of farmer and nongovernmental organizations, presented various examples of how the impacts of climate change are being felt by farmers across Asia.

In the Philippines, the drought that hit Central Luzon, the country’s “rice bowl,” along with Cagayan Valley and the Ilocos Region last July, forced many farmers to plant corn, vegetables, and other dry-season crops instead of rice.Also, rice fields of farmers in the village of Sepaka in Mindanao have turned black and dried up because of the infestation of black rice bugs. Mindanao has been experiencing unpredictable weather, occurrences of both droughts and flash flooding, which cause regular pest infestation.

Farmers in Munshiganj, a small village in the southwestern part of Bangladesh 90 kilometers from the coast, have shifted from rice to prawn farming. The gradual increase in sea level has brought saltwater from the Bay of Bengal into the lowlands. Rice and vegetable crops failed to grow because of the seawater.

In the Isaan region in Thailand, the high salinity of rain-fed rice fields has depleted the country’s annual crop yield.

In 2006, China suffered one of its worst droughts in the past 50 years where water levels and lakes, rivers, and reservoirs dropped to historic lows. Rice-growing provinces in the country are now experimenting with “aerobic rice,” which is bred to require significantly less water than ordinary lowland rice.

Meanwhile, the prolonged cold spell in some districts in Hai Duong, Vietnam has affected crop production severely that it cost many farmers their livelihood.

Coping with climate change

Global warming arises when atmospheric greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide trap the sun’s radiation near the Earth’s surface thus making it warm. These greenhouse gases are induced in the atmosphere by natural and human-generated means.

Developing nations, such as the Philippines, contribute far less greenhouse gas emissions than developed countries but they suffer most of the impacts. In the face of global warming, adaptation is key, stressed National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) consultant Dr. Roger Concepcion.

Concepcion, a former director of the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), said that since our country is surrounded by water, effective irrigation systems should be set up to help alleviate climate change-related production problems.

“Strategic farming can also be helpful,” he said. “If there’s a typhoon in Luzon, then focus on Mindanao.”

For Dr. Suryo Wiyono of Bogor Agricultural University in Indonesia, an effective adaptation technology is needed. “Along with water-efficient practices and microbe technology, this would include optimizing planting dates to cope with drought and flood and planting rice varieties with specific characters (i.e., drought, heat and pest resistant).”

Concepcion also proposed the use of hybrid seeds to increase rice production. Hybrid rice should fill the gap, he said, counseling though that there should be a compromise between hybrid and organic farming.

Jessica Reyes-Cantos of the Rice Watch and Action Network agreed, saying that while the use of hybrid seeds yields greater production, it should only be a short-term measure.

“The use of hybrid seeds has a greater demand for chemical fertilizers that destroy lands and water resources,” she added.

In the Philippines, chemical farming is a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. The groups stressed that an effective way to go is “(to become) organic.”

Tibig also said that the government should push for techniques that help increase crop production in an environment-friendly manner.

While there is no single strategy to adapt to climate change, the groups at the very least are urging farmer participation because they know more about their farms than scientists or institutions do. They also stressed that farming is a social responsibility and by upscaling sustainable agriculture, finding the balance to ensure household surplus while sustaining the national rice stock for public consumption can be achieved.

They likewise encouraged policy reviews, the country’s involvement in global trade agreements, in particular, and mainstreaming the impact of climate change by integrating disaster preparedness, climate risks mapping, and other “climate proofing” measures. (with additional reporting by Karol Ilagan)

Pamela Ordoveza is a senior mass communication student from St. Scholastica’s College. She is taking her summer internship with the PCIJ.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 and is filed under Cross Border, Environment Watch, Governance, In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 people have left comments

alam na alam yan ng department of agriculture itong climate change…yun kung magigising sila agad ng mas maaga…sarap matulog eh lalo na pag-busog na busog.

nosi balasi wrote on May 8, 2008 - 11:26 am | Visit Link

highly industrialized countries know also about this worsening climate change but they refused to do something about it either. these countries, because of their industries are the worst pollutants. profit-driven economy put aside environment issues, if adopting safer methods of doing business would impact the profit ledger.

jcc wrote on May 8, 2008 - 6:54 pm | Visit Link

The rice crisis we have today is a result of both internal and external factors. First, countries like China and and India have increased their demands for rice. Climate change plays a significant role in food production. Natural calamity like typhoon and flood could cause an abnormal increase in the demands for rice in the world market. This could lead to inflation. In economics this is called law of supply and demand. The rice crisis can also be attributed to over-population. When we have limited resources and the demand is significantly increasing, the country’s rice production cannot supply the demand for rice which would later prompt the government to import rice from other countries.

The demand to bio-fuel has caused farmers to shift from planting rice to plant crops that is less costly and could be use as sources of ethanol. Some lands use for planting “palay” has already been converted to housing projects. Add to this, Filipino farmers are not getting adequate support from the National Government to encourage them to plant “palay.” Many dams that has been used before to irrigate fields of “palay” remained idle for several years now. A lot of farmers do not have access to high yielding seeds.

nbernabe wrote on May 10, 2008 - 9:34 am | Visit Link

you got it right nbernabe. farmers have been ignored and set aside…for a very long time. the govt always opt to importations…and not on improvements. wasted ideas. a thing in the past and still toady.

nosi balasi wrote on May 10, 2008 - 1:01 pm | Visit Link

Humans in all our splendor are nothing more than a carbon based virus infecting our earthly host. As with all such organisms, when the host finally dies,… so will the virus. The host is dying as a result of our copious numbers. Longer life can only ensure all of our deaths all at once..
FVD

monkeymonk wrote on May 10, 2008 - 10:31 pm | Visit Link

Very interesting point of view. That human is nothing but carbon and despite its mitochondrial DNA splendor is nothing but a virus that will eventually consume its host, mother-earth.

But floods, hurricane, typhoon, brush fires, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and plagues had been with us thousand of years before we invented the first non-degradable plastic and the first car that gave us carbon monoxide, and before we process freon gas in commercial quantities and released them with impunity to the atmosphere that depleted our ozone layer.

It is a case of the host consuming the virus, as a matter of self-preservation. Mother-earth, may not like humans after all, the way we behave and conduct ourselves and therefore she would like to get rid of us and make the earth free from humans. She started getting rid of humans thousand of years before even before we started getting rid of ourselves by wars and wasteful living.

jcc wrote on May 11, 2008 - 1:35 am | Visit Link

The depletion of our natural resources has an indirect effect to the rice crisis we have today. Mans abuse to its environment has pave the way to host of problems we have been experiencing today. These problems need not to be mentioned as it is pretty much conceivable.

nbernabe wrote on May 11, 2008 - 9:55 am | Visit Link