Above, the middle image says, “Climate change and the people factor” – Why net zero needs the people factor to succeed” (Kpmg), where “net zero” means zero greenhouse gases. (multi-image of PH presidential candidates from Panex-TV-Facts, YouTube.com)
Where do you find the people factor? In farming, I say. Agriculture is the most important sector of the Philippine economy, says Juan Edmund Fernandez Martinez of UP Open University in “Governance In Agriculture And Rural Development,” 2013, Ombudsman.gov.ph):
Agriculture is the queen of the economy, the basis on which industry is built, an essential stepping stone to development…. (The) overall economic growth depends upon growth in agriculture… the source of food and raw materials to the rest of the economy, as well as a source of demand for non-agricultural inputs and consumer goods and services. Finally, almost 70 percent of the nation's poor are in the rural sector and depend directly on agriculture-related economic activities for their major source of livelihood.
Therefore, if you ask me, the Philippines needs a prime investment in its President, one who believes that:
(1) Agriculture with the wise leadership about climate change in mind is crucial.
(2) Farmers with the wise practice of Agriculture will change climate change for the better.
Being an agriculturist, I’m thinking of Agriculture and how it can be changed fundamentally to promote climate change for the good. I call my proposed science “AgriForestry” – note, not “Agroforestry.”
This needs a national initiative I call New La Liga Filipina, after National Hero Jose Rizal’speaceful reform movement. Yes, Dr Rizal practiced excellent agriculture when he was exiled in Dapitan. I have written about Rizal and his Dapitan mixed farming (see my essay, “A Haunting Message From Filipino Hero Jose Rizal, Via Sen Kiko Pangilinan!” 30 Dec 2021, RegINA, Queen Mother Earth, blogspot.com). He was into multiple cropping and what we now call agroforestry – trees grown with farm crops. In what I am advocating, I have combined Agriculture aggressively enough with Forestry to call it AgriForestryand differentiate it from simply Agroforestry.
FAO defines the term thus (FAO.org):
Agroforestry is a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately used on the same land-management units as agricultural crops and/or animals…
My AgriForestry is Agricultural crops grown deliberately with Forestry crops, where the wood crops that are grown are dense enough to withstand strong winds, to protect the food crops from storms & typhoons. Above, that image of rice terraces (from Shutterstock.com) shows proper AgriForestry: a combination of wood crops and food crops helping fight climate change while continuing to attract tourists.
“Climate Change” is not a political battlecry of any of the PH presidential candidates – and it should be.
Presidential candidates, to fight climate change, we need people, people!@517
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