Pamplona, Camarines Sur. Eighty farmers of the Cagbunga Riverside Farmers Organization are now benefitting the impact of the community-based seedbank (CBS) in the AMIA Village located in Brgy. Cagbunga in this municipality. The CBS was established in 2017 as part of the Climate-resilient Agriculture Practices promotion of the Adaptation and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA) project.
AMIA Village, or model Village are communities where vulnerable communities receive interventions from the Department of Agriculture and other agencies to increase resiliency amidst climate-risks. One of the main problems in the AMIA Village is salt-water intrusion, flooding, drought and coastal erosion due to its proximity to Bicol River Basin. The CBS was conceptualized as recurrent damages occur leaving the 200-ha rice production areas left untilled or experienced delay in rehabilitation efforts.
“Ang DA-AMIA ay nagbigay sa amin ng 70 bags ng GSR 11 noong 2011. Napag kasunduan ng Asosasyon na bawat miyembro ay kailangan ibalik ang binhing naibigay sa kanila at kailangan sumunod sa tamang seed selection na tinuro sa amin ng PhilRice Bicol. Ngayong may COVID-19 pandemic, mas napadli sa amin ang pag access sa sa mga seeds lalo na’t merong COVID-19 pandemic”, says Cecil G. Quipayo, Association President. (The DA AMIA has provided us 70 bags of GSR 11 in 2011. The association has agreed that farmer recipients has to roll over the same quantity to the association to be stored in the CBS. We have easy access to seeds especially during this COVID-19 pandemic).
Currently, there are 189bags of rice seeds loaned to other farmers from the CBS. GSR 11 is saline-tolerant variety yielding 5.23 MT/ha based on the actual yield in the AMIA Village performing better than the traditional varieties. In other DA-funded DRR-CCA projects, interventions in other climate risk vulnerable communities were provided by the PLGU-Camarines Sur thru the Mainstreaming and Sustaining Capacities on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Agriculture and Fishery Sectors in PLGU Camarines Sur (AMIA 3 Project) and Partido State University thru the Early Warning System in Bicol River Basin Project in Minalabac, Baao, Gainza, Tigaon and Buhi. Various stress tolerant seeds were distributed and are currently in maturing stages. (Aileen S. Ibo/Sandy B. Bobier)
