BAKU, Azerbaijan – Leodegario Velayo, a 59-year-old farmer-leader from Gapan, Nueva Ecija, urged global leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP29 to listen to farmers and take action on climate change impacts on agriculture.
At a COP29 side event, Velayo delivered a message about how El Niño and La Niña effects threaten farmers in the Philippines, joining civil society organizations from various countries in advocating for agroecology as a climate solution.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, agroecology is a holistic and multidisciplinary approach that integrates ecological, social, and cultural principles to design sustainable agriculture and food systems. Agroecology considers the interconnected relationships among plants, animals, people, and their environment while providing context-specific solutions to the challenges experienced by farmers.
For instance, instead of using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, Velayo cultivated drought-tolerant and early-maturing rice varieties during this year’s cropping season. This allowed him to produce zero chemical inputs, avoiding debts and reliance on corporations.
Impacts on agriculture
“The situation of farmers in the Philippines is worsening because of the typhoons that struck us. It is affecting our rice fields,” Velayo, a member of the Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura, told Rappler in Filipino.
In the last month alone, six tropical cyclones hit Luzon in the Philippines, affecting millions of Filipinos.
According to the Global Report on Food Crises 2024, weather extremes were the main driver of acute food insecurity for 18 countries, with over 72 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity.
In the Philippines, the Department of Agriculture last May estimated that the overall cost of damage to agriculture and fisheries in the country from the El Niño phenomenon was P9.5 billion.
Velayo said that the high cost of farming, specifically conventional agriculture, and the impacts of calamities on crops are the primary reasons why they almost have nothing to harvest.
The Pesticide Action Network International (PAN) said that support for agroecology and pesticide reforms implementation is crucial to climate action and a resilient food system.
PAN said countries must ensure that their Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans phase out highly hazardous pesticides, address their risks to biodiversity, provide more structural support for agroecology practices, and ensure credible measures to support these reforms through a whole-of-government approach.
“Instead of supporting agroecology, the government continues to promote big corporations’ interests, specifically conventional farming, leading to the further loss and destruction of the livelihoods of the poor,” Velayo said in Filipino.
‘Farmers hold the real answers’
“The global leaders must need to recognize and respect farmer’s rights in the global south: the right to our land, our right to plant and share our seeds, the right to choose and develop technologies that are based on our needs and objectives,” Velayo said during a separate protest at COP29.
As the two-week COP29 winds down, developing countries are demanding wealthy nations to provide $1.3 trillion in public climate finance annually.
According to the Family Farmers for Climate Action (FFCA), at least P200 to P500 billion a year is needed to achieve a sustainable and equitable food system. Governments must also ensure that this “money is well spent.”
An analysis by the FFCA also found that one-third of the $2.6 billion invested by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF) in 2019 and 2022 was directed toward projects explicitly supporting sustainable agriculture practices relevant to small-scale farmers.
Still, small-scale farmers are often not considered in decision-making and have no direct access to finance.
“While you pour billions into corporate-driven false solutions, we farmers are already holding the real answers,” Velayo told negotiators during the side event. – Rappler.com